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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0165

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[photo] Morning on Merced River, California
Photo credit: William K. Dick, 1972
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 30 x 50 in (76 x 127 cm)
Inscription: l/r "F. Schafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand, underlined, "a" may be umlauted
Verso: said to be "Morning on Merced River, California"
Provenance: In private collection in 1972. Sold 24 June 1992 for $2250+10% by Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, as lot 6254 in sale 4907D.
Reproductions: Archives of California Art photo (color); William K. Dick photo #65 (color, 1970); Butterfield & Butterfield 24 June 1992 sale catalog; Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #114 (1992, not seen).
Citations: William K. Dick notes, page 80
Description: A calm river on the left, with sun rising behind layers of clouds on the horizon to the left shading through reds and pinks above and toward a darker gray sky on the right. At the right edge of the river, a fisherman in a red shirt stands in a boat; a second fisherman leans over the boat from the bank. The river bank on the right contains boulders and conifers, and rises to light pink rocky cliffs in the middle distance on the right, silhouetted against a dark, forbidding sky. A snag lies on the bank by the boulders. The water of the river reflects the varying colors of the sky. The bright cliffs contrast with the dark sky above. (From the painting, 14 June 1992.)
Note: A painting with almost the same title (it adds the word "the" after "on" was offered as lot 33 in the catalog of a May 1886 exhibition and auction sale in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, but the information in that catalog is insufficient to either include or exclude the possibility that it is this painting.
Identification: From the reports of the verso title in the Butterfield & Butterfield catalog and the Early California and Western Art Research index.
In index(es): Title list, fishing scenes

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility