| Date: | probably undated |
| Medium: | oil on canvas, lined |
| Size: | 14 x 20 in (36 x 51 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/l "F SHAFER", strange hand |
| Verso: | said to be "Three Sisters" on stretcher bar |
| Provenance: | Sold 17 February 1988 for $850+10% by Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, as lot 4106 in sale 3910P/P31. |
| Reproductions: | 17/18 February sale catalog 3910P/P31; Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #86 (color, 1988); William K. Dick photo #100 (color, 1972) |
| Attribution: | The signature is misspelled, and in a strange all-capital hand that is neither the usual artist's hand nor the handwriting usually used for verso titles. The style is different from other Schafer pictures, with identical detail in all planes of the picture; mountains do not dominate; trees do not have individual branches, colors include more pastels and blues than usual. The attribution seems questionable. A note on the back of William K. Dick's photograph questions the attribution. |
| Site: | The title suggests a site somewhere near the Three Sisters mountains in Oregon, but the single snow-capped mountain in the picture does not resemble the Three Sisters in any of their usual views. |
| Description: | Blue sky with fluffy clouds, snow-capped mountains in the distance, grey cliffs and ridges below the mountains, a river in the midground to the right, dark green conifers at the left, and sun-bathed broadleaf trees on the far bank, some much lighter in green. A driftwood branch lies across a rock on the near bank of the river. (From a color photograph.) |
| Identification: | The sale catalog reports the dimensions as 20 x 14 in, but the illustration is of a painting with the long dimension horizontal. The Early California and Western Art Research index identifies the slide with the 17 February 1988 sale. The title is from the sale catalog. |
| In index(es): | questioned attributions |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0100.jpg)