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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0638

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[photo] Indian village, Arizona

Medium: oil on canvas, lined
Size: 30 x 60 inches (76 x 152 cm)
Inscription: l/r "F. Schafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand.
Verso: "Indian Vallage in Arizona/relined". Said to have been inscribed "Indian Village, Arizona" before lining.
Provenance: Sold 14 June 2000 for $1500+15% by Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, as lot 2207 in sale 7146D to private collection by October 2009.
Reproductions: Butterfield & Butterfield 14 June 2000 sale catalog; 2009 owner's photograph.
Description: A southwest desert scene with a flat horizon. Two women in brightly colored native dress, one seated on a donkey, are talking in the center of the picture in front of a small village of shelters and sheds made mostly of sticks. Several other figures are barely discernible within the village. Drying racks surround several of the shelters, and a tripod rack stands beside the nearest one. The desert is sprinkled with Saguaro and barrel cacti and sagebrush; the sky is blue. (From a color photograph.)
Note: Schafer is not known to have visited Arizona, and the materials of which the huts are constructed do not appear to be local to Arizona. Instead, they look more like the typical huts of the Pomo Indians on the northern California coast. Perhaps someone commissioned a painting of Arizona Indians, so the artist painted a local encampment scene and added several stylized saguaro cacti to provide the appearance of the Sonoran desert.
In index(es): Title list, Indian encampments as primary subjects, Indians in desert locales

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility