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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0612

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[photo] Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [2]

Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 23.5 x 42 in (60 x 107 cm)
Inscription: l/l "F. Schafer.", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand, grave accent over the "a" and partially underlined.
Verso: u/r "$135.00"; l/r "Mount Tamalpaise California. / from Ross Valley.", both in black brush on the canvas, in the artist's block-letter hand.
Provenance: In private collection, Santa Rosa, California. With Bruner's Fine Arts, Santa Rosa, California. In collection of F. N. Morgon, Oakland, California. Sold 17 June 1999 for $4600 + 10% by Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, as lot 1213 in sale 7007D. Sold 18 May 2014 for $7,000 + 20% by Clar's Auction Gallery, Oakland, as lot 6191 in "Fine Art and Antique Auction".
Reproductions: 17 June 1999 sale catalog 7007D (color). 18 May 2014 on-line sale catalog (color)
Site: View from the south of Mount Tamalpais, in Marin County, California, probably from Frank's Valley rather than Ross Valley.
Description: A view across a wide, flat valley past two ridges, a shadowed, forested one sloping up to the left and a lighter, grassy, sun-brightened one sloping up to the right; beyond the ridges a beige Mount Tamalpais dominates the scene under a sky that is cloudy on the right and blue on the left; the sun is apparently low in the sky off the canvas to the left, making the scene one of early evening. In the middle distance, eight cows, one much nearer than the rest, stand in green grass beside a meandering river that finally makes its way past sandy banks and two snags to the right front corner of the painting. A few small trees stand on the low right bank of the river; on the left beyond the cows a grove of broadleaf trees stands on the bank above the river's channel. Behind them and farther to the left is a sun-brightened clearing. In the photographs, the nearly identical, but larger, Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [1] can best be distinguished by counting cows. (From a color photograph.)
Note: 1. The reported verso inscription is puzzling. Ross Valley is north of Mount Tamalpais, but the painting is of the mirror-image, southern profile of the mountain. Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [1], Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [3], Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [4], and Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [5] share this same mistitling; Evening on Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [1] and Evening on Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [2] share the title but are views from the North, as one would expect. 2. In the Butterfield & Butterfield sale catalog the size is given as 42 x 23.5 in., but the photograph is of a painting in landscape orientation. 3. A gallery label for Maxwell Galleries, Ltd. is affixed to the back of the frame, suggesting that at some point it was offered by that gallery.
In index(es): Title list, Mount Tamalpais

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility