Summary of observations about the Art From these observations of his background and his art, one can conclude that Frederick Ferdinand Schafer was a talented painter who maintained the European picturesque landscape tradition despite the whirlwind of changing styles of the late nineteenth century. By applying this tradition to the many opportunities provided by grand vistas of the western United States and at the same time depicting Indians, prospectors, ships, and other common features of the day in his paintings, he left a record that, though not of the highest rank, held both artistic and historic merit.
Acknowledgements Scores of collectors have provided documentation and photographs of their Schafer paintings and leads on the existence of other paintings they have seen. Most of them are not individually acknowledged here because collectors usually prefer to keep their collections private. Individuals (with affiliations and locations at the time they provided help): | Volker Adolphs | Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf | | Bronwin Albrecht | Sotheby Fine Arts, New York | | Nancy Allen | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | | Andrea Bacigalupo | Butterfield and Butterfield, San Francisco | | Paul Bingham | Bingham Galleries, San Jose, California | | Leonard Braarud | Braarud Fine Art, La Conner, Washington | | Stanleigh Bry | Society of California Pioneers, San Francisco | | Darcy Coates | The Oakland Museum of California | | Delphine Castles | Craigdarroch Castle Historical Society, Victoria, B.C. | | Jack Cleaver | Oregon Historical Society, Portland | | Sherburne F. Cooke, Jr. | Sherburne Antiques and Fine Arts, Olympia, Washington | | Susan Cowan | Uno Langemann Limited, Vancouver, B.C. | | Bruce Davies | Craigdarroch Castle Historical Society, Victoria, B.C. | | Stuart A. Dalie III | Alameda, California | | Alfred de Simone | St Charles, Illinois | | William K. Dick | San Francisco | | Lawrence Dinnean | Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California | | Christine Droll | The Oakland Museum of California | | Robert Drummond | The Drummond Gallery, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho | | James A. Eason | Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California | | Jack von Euw | Archives of American Art, San Francisco | | Susan Else | Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, California | | Peter Fairbanks | Montgomery Gallery, San Francisco | | Nancy Ferreira | Christopher Queen Galleries, Duncans Mills, California | | Linda E. Fisher | Graham Gallery, New York City | | Albert H. Gaynor | Alpha CD Imaging, Menlo Park, California | | John Garzoli | Garzoli Gallery, San Rafael, California | | Matthew Gerber | Matthew's Galleries, Lake Oswego, Oregon | | Ann Gilbert | University of California at Berkeley, California | | Nancy Gilbert | Hunter Gallery, Carmel, California | | Vicki Halper | Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington | | Ellen Halteman | Independent art historian, Davis, California | | Philip A. C. Harris | Alameda, California | | Alfred Harrison, Jr. | North Point Gallery, San Francisco | | Arthur Hart | Boise, Idaho | | Paulette D. Hennum | Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California | | Mark Hoffman | Maxwell Galleries, Ltd, San Francisco | | Kathy Holdredge | M. H. de Young Museum, San Francisco | | Amy Hooker | Juneau-Douglas City Museum, Juneau, Alaska | | Jeanette Hoskinson | Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles | | Carol S. Hughes | Frank S. Schwartz and Son, Philadelphia | | Edan Milton Hughes | San Francisco, California | | Mary Hunter | Hunter Gallery, Carmel, California | | Robert Joki | The Sovereign Collection, Portland, Oregon | | Harvey Jones | The Oakland Museum of California | | Nan Jones | Ross, California | | Roy Farrington Jones | Ross, California | | Patricia L. Keats | Society of California Pioneers | | Fred Keeler | Piedmont, California | | Patrick Kraft | William Karges Fine Art, Carmel, California | | Richard Kerwin | Kerwin Galleries, San Mateo, California | | Jeanette Langmann | Uno Langmann Limited, Vancouver, British Columbia | | Martha Lee | Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National Park | | Scot Levitt | John Pence Gallery, San Francisco | | Pat Lynagh | National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. | | James Marquardt | Lewis Reed & Allen, Kalamazoo, Michigan | | Ross Martineau | John Pence Gallery, San Francisco | | Dewitt C. McCall III | DeRu's Fine Arts, Bellflower, California | | Nancy McCauley | Stanford University, Palo Alto, California | | Peg McGowan | Alameda Public Library, Alameda, California | | Dwight Miller | Stanford University, Palo Alto, California | | Nancy Dustin Wall Moure | Los Angeles, California | | Walter A. Nelson-Rees | WIM Fine Arts, Oakland, California | | Joon Park | University of Southern California, Los Angeles | | John Penhune | La Jolla, California | | Lisa Peters | Montgomery Gallery, San Francisco | | Rita Ricardo-Campbell | Hoover Institution, Stanford, California | | Kathleen Ripley | Richmond Museum, Richmond, California | | Michael D. Schroeder | Cupertino, California | | Cromwell H. W. Schubarth | Boston | | Stanley Shiebert | Seattle Public Library, Seattle | | Scott Shields | California Historical Society, San Francisco | | Elizabeth Smart | State of California, Sacramento, California | | Ann Smith | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles | | Jerry Smith | M. H. de Young Museum, San Francisco | | Leonard Stafford | Greenbrae, California | | Franz R. Stenzel | Portland, Oregon | | John Stohr | Rockridge Masonic Temple, Emeryville, California | | Derek Swallow | British Columbia Records Archive, Victoria, B.C. | | Evangeline Tai | Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, California | | Richard Terry | California State Library, Sacramento, California | | Anne de Gruchy Tighe | Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, B.C. | | Mark Traugott | University of California at Santa Cruz, California | | Joanne Triplett | Inventory of American Art, Washington D.C. | | Arnold ("Swede") Wallen | Christopher Queen Galleries, Duncans Mills, California | | Alfred Wellcome | Shasta State Historic Park, Shasta, California | | Jonathan Williams | State of California, Monterey, California | | Chris Wilson | Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, Oregon | | Kathy Wong | Clars Auction Gallery, Oakland, California | | Mary Pat Wyatt | Juneau-Douglas City Museum, Juneau, Alaska | Unidentified staff members of: | Archives of American Art | Washington, D.C. | | Bancroft Library, University of California | Berkeley, California | | Boston Public Library | Boston | | Butterfield and Butterfield | San Francisco | | California Historical Society | San Francisco | | Cleveland Museum Art Library | Cleveland | | Harvard Fine Arts Library, Fogg Art Museum | Cambridge, Massachusetts | | The Library of Congress | Washington, D.C. | | Mechanics' Institute Library | San Francisco | | M. H. de Young Museum | San Francisco | | Museum of Fine Arts Library | Boston | | National Museum of American Art | Washington, D.C. | | Oakland Public Library | Oakland, California | | San Francisco Public Library | San Francisco | | Stanford University Art Library | Palo Alto, California | | Stanford University Visual Archive | Palo Alto, California | | Sterling and Francine Clark Art Museum | Williamstown, Massachusetts | | University Library | Cambridge, England | | Wellesley College Library | Wellesley, Massachusetts | | The Witt Library | London | Organizations: | Digital Equipment Corporation Systems Research Center | Palo Alto, California | | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, Massachusetts | | University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory | Cambridge, England | Special acknowledgements are required for three individuals named in the list above--amateur art historians who, as a labor of love, privately collected an immense amount of material pertinent to the study of California nineteenth-century artists. Roy Farrington Jones (1925 - 2019) of Ross, California, spent two decades photographing early Western paintings at dealers, auctions, and in private collections. His wife, Nancy Hoffman Jones (1920 - 2001), carefully indexed and organized the resulting slides and she spent many hours with me reviewing the Schafer slides in that collection. The third special acknowledgement is to William K. Dick of San Francisco, California, who tracked down and photographed many paintings of California artists, with a special emphasis on Schafer. He also spent much time reviewing archives of late nineteenth-century San Francisco newspapers, assembling notes and reports pertaining to the art scene at that time. Mr. Dick graciously permitted me to review his research notes and his many photographs of Schafer paintings, and he was happy to fill me in with many facts he discovered about Schafer's work. As the study of nineteenth-century California painting becomes more widely recognized as being worthy of professional attention, the importance of the work carried on by dedicated people such as these three collectors, working in the fringes of the professional art history community, will be recognized as essential to the capture and preservation of information and images that would otherwise have been lost. |