| Date: | said to be 1882, but see note |
| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 14 x 24 in (36 x 61 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "F. Schafer" underlined, in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand |
| Verso: | None reported, but see Identification. |
| Provenance: | In private collection, Mission Diego, California by 1975. |
| Reproductions: | Inventory of American Paintings… record 71030185, S2.96 LC10/3 |
| Description: | A deep blue creek emerges near the center, flowing gently through a flat, sandy valley first toward the right, then the left, then back toward the right, passing a small island before leaving at the front center. Two men stand and sit in a canoe on the bright, sunny bank at the center behind a shadowed foreground. High brush and low trees stand on the bank at the right, while a more distant grove of broadleaf trees stands on the left. In the back a brown hill precedes a dusty brown low mountain which gently slopes down from a rounded peak at the center. The sky is hazy blue with many clouds. Dead trees stand on both the right and the left. (From a color photograph.) |
| Note: | Despite the reported date, this painting may have been executed between the fall of 1871 and the spring of 1873, a period when Schafer is thought to have been resident on the east coast of the United States before moving to San Francisco. The unusual spelling of the probable verso title (see Identification) supports this speculation, as it suggests that the artist, who had just emigrated from Germany, was new to the English language. |
| Identification: | Corrected spelling of the title "Withe Mountain Creek", as reported by the Inventory of American Paintings. That title comes from the original hand-written report by the painting's owner. It seems likely that the unusual spelling originates with an unmentioned verso inscription by the artist. See Autumn in the White Mountains [3] for an example of a similarly unusual spelling of a verso title. |
| In index(es): | Title list, eastern United States scenes, dated paintings |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img9018.jpg)