Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

5.2 Other artists named Schafer: Henri Schäfer


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Henri Schäfer (French, 1833 – 1916)1

[painting image]

Freiburg Market Stalls
by Henri Schäfer

Watercolor, 18 x 13.5 inches
eBay auction #1493401256
Owner's photograph

Henri Schäfer was a Victorian-era artist who painted town and city scenes and cathedral interiors in Belgium, Germany, and France. Since this subject matter differs so dramatically from that of Frederick F. Schafer there is little chance of confusing their paintings. However, because of the similarity in their names, the overlap in their times of active work, and this artist's sometime residence in Britain (Islington), the townscape paintings of Henri Schäfer are often misattributed to the British artist Henry Thomas Schafer, and their biographical details are occasionally merged, most notably in Benezit, Emmanuel, Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres,…. The catalogs of auction houses regularly confuse the two artists. Distinct biographical sketches may be found in Wood, Christopher, Victorian Painters.

Further adding to the confusion, some auction houses and other sources misattribute paintings that by style and signature appear to be by Henri Schäfer to German artist Heinrich Hermann Schäfer, a third artist with a similar name and overlapping time of active work.

For reference, at the left is an example of a painting by Henri Schäfer. Below are details showing inscriptions from this and another painting, with typical examples of his signature.

[signature inscription] [signature inscription]

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Notes

1. The dates for Henri Schäfer are from the the record by Anne L. Cowe of Cheltenham Art Gallery accession 1922:295:2 in the (British) National Inventory of Continental European Paintings. A copy of that record is posted at vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=88417 (retrieved 26 January 2017).



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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility