Frederick A. Butman (American, 1820-1871)

Mount Shasta, 1865

About

• Born in Bangor, Maine, Frederick Butman became one of California’s most successful early artists following his arrival in San Francisco in 1857. He was not formally trained, but during the time he owned an apothecary shop in Gardiner, Maine, from 1849 to 1857, he began to draw and paint figure studies and landscapes, which were much admired.
  Once in San Francisco, Butman painted local subjects such as Hunter’s Point and Chinatown. He also traveled widely throughout the state and portrayed the dramatic terrain of the Monterey Peninsula, Yosemite Valley, Lake Tahoe region, and Mount Shasta. He specialized in snow scenes at higher elevations. In the early 1860s, Butman traveled through Oregon and painted views well into the Washington Territory. He exhibited at the Mechanics’ Institute and at the California State Fair. His more showy paintings of dramatic landscapes reportedly sold for high prices—as much as $8,000 in gold.
  Butman returned to the East in 1867 and settled in New York, exhibiting there at the National Academy of Design and also at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He ultimately returned to San Francisco and painted the California landscape, but when he died in 1871 he was visiting family in Gardiner.