Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Paintings known only by title

About paintings known only by title

Below is a list of painting titles that were mentioned in one or more (usually older) sources such as a nineteenth-century auction sale catalog or newspaper article. Each title is followed by a list of sources that mentioned that title.

Unfortunately, these sources provide little or no information beyond the title. Schafer painted popular scenes several times, typically giving paintings of the same scene the same title, so when different sources mention the same title there is usually no way to determine whether or not they refer to the same painting. For the same reason, identifying any of these titles with a currently known painting that lacks complete provenance is problematic. And although Schafer inscribed verso titles on many of his paintings, for the ones he did not title (and some that he did) dealers and collectors have assigned their own descriptive titles, making matching even more problematic. Finally, the titles themselves can be misleading, since catalog preparers and newspaper reporters are both notoriously bad at capturing exact title wording. In this list, titles with minor variations are merged, with notes describing the differences.

Considering these obstacles to identification, there is almost certainly a large but unknown overlap between these titles and the catalogued paintings.

For works that are fully catalogued, see the Other lists and indexes.

Paintings known only by title