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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Problematic painting record FFSp0955

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[photo] Mount Shasta, California [29]

Medium: oil on canvas, laid to canvas
Size: 30 x 50 in (76 x 127 cm)
Inscription: l/l, indistinctly, "Schafer" with possible initial F conjoined in a monogram with the "S", in what appears to be the artist's distinctive block printing hand.
Verso: u/r "Mt Shasta California." copied onto the lining canvas, presumably from an original inscription on the underlying canvas. The copier has tried, only partially successfully, to reproduce the artist's characteristic block printing hand.
Provenance: In private collection, Los Angeles, California; Offered 23 April 2013 (not sold) by John Moran Auctioneers, Inc., Pasadena, California, as lot 185 in California & American Fine Art sale. Offered 4 May 2021 (not sold) by John Moran Auctioneers, Inc., Pasadena, California, as lot 41 in "Calfornia and American Fine Art" sale.
Reproductions: John Moran Auctioneers, Inc. sale catalog
Attribution: The painting is not typical of Schafer's usual style. It has a sharply outlined but unfinished midrange mountain ridge, stylized clouds, unusually flat water, an unusually detailed stratovolcano, and a small number of planes that are nearly disconnected. The foreground, however, is quite typical, with botanically accurate trees, debris and snags, wild flower accents, typical palette, and barely sketched staffage. The painting may have left the studio before it was finished, or it might be a copy of Schafer's work by someone else.
Site: Mount Shasta, viewed from the south along the upper Sacramento River.
Identification: Title from verso inscription, presumed to be a copy of an original artist's inscription.
In index(es): Mount Shasta and Shastina, questioned attributions

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility