MOONLIGHT SCENE IN MARIN COUNTY, (NEAR BOLINAS) ORIGINAL SKETCH, A FRIENDLY DEDICATION TO MISS McHENRY, FROM THE AUTHOR. Original drawing, circa 1860s-1870s. Mixed media graphite and white highlighted drawing, measuring 10.5x17.5 cm (4 x 7 inches), sight, not examined out of frame. Edward Vischer (1809-1878), a native of Bavaria, settled in California about 1847. He established himself in San Francisco, principally as a commission merchant. Late in life he took up drawing and was soon making sketches wherever he went. According to Francis P. Farquhar, Edward Vischer & His "Pictorial of California" (San Francisco 1932), Vischer "... developed great facility in making a rapid draft of outlines which he would fill in with greater detail at leisure. He could thus make notes for a sketch while stagecoach horses were being changed, or on other such occasions. He used all manner of media-whatever came to hand. Many of his sketches were made on a bond paper. Some were made on an enameled surface paper. The latter was sometimes tinted with varying shades and colors. He would sometimes scratch off the enamel in spots in order to give a white surface, and produce highlight effect. He used pencil and quill pen and sometimes watercolors or crayon and a soft leather blender." Vischer is best known for the many drawings of California scenes he made in the 1860s and 1870s. His subjects included its missions, towns, rural scenery and natural features, many of historic interest (including the Washoe mining region, the Pony Express and camels in the Calaveras Grove of big trees). Vischer's announced aim was to produce graphic rather than artistic drawings. His sketches, based on personal observation or copied from contemporary photographic images, constitute an important historical record of early California. Original works by Vischer are rarely offered for sale. Those few that exist mainly reside in major institutional collections, including the Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkley), the Huntington Library, the California Historical Society, the Autry Museum of the American West, and the Society of California Pioneers. A few faint fox marks in the sky, very good overall. Framed. (#179182).
Price: $3,750.00
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