| Date: | undated |
| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 20 x 36 in (51 x 91 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "F. Schafer", in a script that resembles the artist's block-letter hand, scratched into the paint, revealing a beige ground |
| Verso: | "Willamet Valley, Oregon", in pencil on the canvas near the center, in an unknown script hand |
| Provenance: | With Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, August 1972; to private collection, Palo Alto, California, 1972. |
| Exhibited: | California Landscape Painting, 1860–1885, Palo Alto, California, 1975-76; Nineteenth Century Painters of the California Landscape, 1976. |
| Reproductions: | Stanford University Visual Collection 76Q.87 (color, 1976); Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #20 (color, c. 1975); William K. Dick photo #46 (color, 1972) |
| Citations: | 1975 exhibition catalog, #5, page 50; 1976 exhibition catalog; Inventory of American Paintings… record 71063898 |
| Description: | A dramatically colored scene of (near the center) white and (on the left) grey to black clouds gathering against a blue-grey sky. In the middle distance a rocky cliff rises gradually from the left, acquires a reddish cast, then drops abruptly at the center, where a distant range of hills continues just above the horizon. In front of the cliff is an conifer forest with sections of lighter green broadleaf trees. A calm river reflects as indistinct shapes the dark forest and the white cloud, in contrast with coral-colored beaches around its edge and bright green grass on the bank to the left. On the far side of the river is a tent, in front of which smoke rises from a bright campfire, which also reflects in the water. Several birds are silhouetted against the horizon. (From the painting, 7 November 1989.) |
| Note: | 1. In the exhibition catalog, Miller commends the painting for its handling of blustery, wind-swept clouds and the sense of atmospheric dampness. 2. A painting with the same title was offered as lot 21 on page 2 of the catalog of a 22 September 1882 auction in San Francisco but there is not enough information in that catalog to either include or exclude the possibility that it is this painting. |
| Identification: | The Inventory of American Paintings listing names the collector, but omits the title word Oregon, and gives the dimensions as "19 x 35 (sight)". Miller confirms that his painting appeared in the two exhibitions. The Early California and Western Art Research index identifies the slide with Miller. A note on the back of the photograph by William K. Dick gives the title as The Lonely Bluff and gives details of the Butterfield & Butterfield auction. |
| Other title(s): | The Lonely bluff (William K. Dick photo) |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0487.jpg)