| Date: | 1888 |
| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 30 x 50 in (76 x 127 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "F. Schafer 88", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand |
| Verso: | no inscription |
| Provenance: | collection of Mae Helene Bacon Boggs, Shasta, California; by gift to The Shasta State Historic Park 2 February 1950 (public). |
| Reproductions: | Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #1 (color, c. 1970); William K. Dick photo #88 (color, 1971) |
| Citations: | Inventory of American Paintings… record 04870017; San Francisco Chronicle 12 August 1970; Sacramento Union, 12 August 1970 and 27 August 1970; Park inventory #126-2-22, Boggs Collection. |
| Site: | A view looking East, up Yosemite Valley, California, from the old Madera road near Artist's Point. El Capitan is a hazy shape on the left, Half Dome is dimly seen in outline in the distance, and Cathedral Rocks and Bridalveil Fall are on the right. |
| Description: | Trees on the valley wall at the left, in the mid-distance, consist only of a couple of indistinct brushstrokes. Several bends of the Merced river can be seen on the floor of the valley. The lower right foreground triangle of the painting is intense and detailed, in contrast with the bright but hazy greyish background. In the foreground, several figures follow the dirt road coming down from the right. In the lead is a woman in Indian dress carrying a walking stick, followed immediately by a child. Behind them is a man with a wide-brimmed hat on muleback. Behind that is another man on foot with a walking stick. (From the painting, September 24, 1989.) |
| Note: | The painting hangs in the old courthouse at Shasta, California, part of the Boggs collection of early Western paintings. From 1968 to 1970 it was borrowed by Ronald Reagan to decorate the Governor's mansion in Sacramento. The Redding chapter of the Native Daughters of the Golden West apparently created a newspaper publicity campaign to get the painting returned to the Shasta courthouse. |
| Identification: | Descriptive title of unknown origin, as reported to the Inventory of American Paintings entry, which names the Shasta State Historical Monument as the owner. It also gives the size as 29.5 x 49.5 in, probably a sight measurement. The Early California and Western Art Research index identifies the slide with the Boggs collection #22; at the time the slide was taken the painting was in the governor's mansion. The photograph by William K. Dick identifies the painting with the Shasta museum. |
| In index(es): | Title list, Yosemite Valley--classic view, paintings currently held in museums and public collections, dated paintings |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0088.jpg)