Frederick A. Butman was born in Gardiner, Maine in 1820 and also died there in 1871 while visiting his family. He was a landscape and figure painter active from 1857 until his death. He was listed in the San Francisco city directory from 1859 to 1871.
Butman owned a drugstore in Gardiner until 1857 when he moved to San Francisco. From 1860 to 1865 he explored a thousand miles up the Columbia River. Called a “showy” painter, he is said to have sold landscape paintings in California for as much as $8,000 in gold.
He returned to he East in 1866 and exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1867. He showed On Bear River at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1868, giving his address as New York City. He is known to have sketched in Europe in the summer of 1869 before returning to San Francisco.
On February 21, 1871 Butman sold $7,000 worth of paintings at auction at H. M. Newhall & Co. in San Francisco. Besides Western, European, and Maine views, the following are the titles of the New Hampshire scenes sold:
Rain, White Mountains; View near Lead Mine Bridge, White Mountains; Sunset Rock Bethel Maine; White Birch Trees, Shelburne NH; Androscoggin Meadows Shelburne NH; Study from Nature, White Mountains; Valley of the Androscoggin; White Mountains from Bethel Maine; Morning Androscoggin Valley; View in Shelburne NH; View in Gorham NH; Early Morning White Mountains; On the Road from Gorham to the Glen , White Mountains; Androscoggin Meadows Shelburne NH; Near Lead Mine Bridge, White mountains; Sunset in the White Mountains; Rain, Bear River Valley ME; Mt. Jefferson White Mountains – view from Shelburne NH; Mt. Jefferson from the road to the Glen; Winter in the White Mountains; Distant View of the Summit of Mt. Washington , White Mountains; In the Valley of the Androscoggin.
Signature
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- 1868
Reference
Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West
Daily Alta California Vol. 23 Number 7641, 22 February 1871