Frederick Ferdinand Schafer (1839-1927) was born in Germany. His early training is not recorded. He emigrated to the United States in 1876, at the age of 37, and over the next 50 years produced more than 500 paintings of western American landscapes. He mainly worked in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, British Columbia and Alaska, and most of his scenes are summer ones, probably because of the difficulties of visiting these sites in the winter. His vast, wild, dramatic scenes were painted in a natural style, without being slavish to photographic-type detail. His canvases feature saturated colours, strong light, awesome scenery and small mid-ground figures or animals to provide scale and atmosphere. His brush technique varies across the canvas, with the distant elements being shaped with just a few broad strokes of the brush, whilst the mid and foregrounds are far more intricately painted and deliberately draw the eye with splashes of colour and detail.
