Frederick Schafer was born in Germany in 1839, and arrived in Northern California in the 1870's. Schafer was a regular exhibitor in San Francisco, showing works painted during numerous excursions throughout the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, Canada, Montana, and Wyoming. Schafer frequently included Indian figures in his dramatic mountainous landscapes, which were largely painted in a somber Germanic palette. He died in Oakland, California in 1827, where he supplemented his income as a scene painter for local theater companies.