| Medium: | oil on canvas, lined |
| Size: | 20 x 36 in (51 x 91 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "FSchafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand, initials conjoined in a monogram. |
| Verso: | A slip stapled to the lower stretcher bar reads 'on back of canvas, before lining (12/10/75): / "The Sacramento Valley / California" in artist's handwriting'. A Butterfield & Butterfield label on the verso upper frame, reads "Note BB / Feb 4506P / Lot# EXD4A / Item# p2". A gold sticker on the verso lower frame is unreadable in the available photograph. |
| Provenance: | Sold in 1975 by WIM Fine Arts, Oakland, California to collection of Mr. & Mrs. James R. Harvey, San Francisco. Offered 12 July 1990 by Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, as lot 2170 in sale 4325P/P58 (not sold); sold 13 February 1991 for $3100 by Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, as lot 2004 in sale 4506D/P61. In private collection, San Francisco, by 2008; sold 24 September 2023 for $2500 by Abell Auction Company, Los Angeles, as lot 492 in "Jewelry, Fine Art, and Antiques" sale. |
| Reproductions: | WIM Fine Arts photo #172 (color, 1975); Inventory of American Paintings… record 71069331, S2.96 LC/1; 12 July 1990 sale catalog; 13 February 1991 sale catalog; Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #104, of the 1991 sale catalog photo (monochrome); Abell Auction Company 24 September 2023 sale catalog. |
| Description: | Mostly dark clouds gather above a flat valley with a green, foggy, meadow in the distance at the left, a forest in the middle distance at the right. Several kinds of broadleaf trees (distinguished by different shades of green foliage) dot the scene. A river, reflecting the dark sky, enters from the right and exits at the left front. Several cows stand in a clearing on the far side of the river. The near bank is covered with low brush and a dark tree at the right with a bright green bush at its base. The drawing is quite controlled, especially in the bushes and cows. (From a color photograph.) |
| Note: | (1) A 1936 letter in the clipping file of the Alameda Free Public Library, examined in 1990, reports that a painting titled Sacramento Valley was in a private Los Angeles collection, but the information in that letter is insufficient to either include or exclude the possibility that it is this painting. (2) The composition is virtually identical to those of In the Sacramento Valley [1] and [In the Sacramento Valley 2]. |
| Identification: | Title from the 1975 note found verso. The 1990 sale catalog omits the word California but all of the photographs appear to be of the same painting. |
| Other title(s): | Landscape with pond (Inventory of American Paintings…); Pastoral with cows (WIM Fine Arts list) |
| In index(es): | Title list, pastoral and rural scenes |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img1990.jpg)