This Carl Hoerman (1885 – 1955) painting suffered from dirt contamination and a sizable scratch in the top-left. Once it was cleaned we noticed the area with the scratch had been over-scrubbed, resulting in paint loss. This was from someone’s prior attempt to repair the work. In-painting was carried out to conceal this area. While the painting isn’t dated, we noticed that the board it was painted on is rather old, and this leads us to believe that it is an early work by Hoerman.

Hoerman and his wife, Christiana, who was also an artist, took a trip to Pike’s Peak in 1926. By the following year, Hoerman had started to paint desert scenes. During the 1930s, the couple would spend their winters in southern California, escaping those of the Saugatuck, Michigan area.