As fate would have it, 7 years after I posted about the painting in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon, I get an answer about who painted it...from the son of the artist! Amazing how the internet (sometimes) works!
"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Mark Schaeffing. The other day I was surfing the internet searching Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe saloon painting and I happened to stumble upon your post, dated August 3, 2011 titled April 1977, pt 7, I have the answer to who did the painting. It was my father, James Schaeffing. He was employed at Disney Studios during the 60's as an artist and worked on many Disney movies. Walt commissioned my father to do the painting."
When Walt saw the finished painting, he said, “Jim, this is a great painting but could you cover the top a little bit?” This finally solves my question as to whether the gauzy material draped over the woman's breasts was original or not.
Here's the picture of the painting and Jim, taken by Mark's brother-in-law.
Mark was also gracious enough to share a scene study illustration that his dad did for the opening scene of "Mary Poppins" showing her flying and holding her umbrella. Jim was also the one who painted the chalk scenes that Bert, Mary, and the children jump into for the Jolly Holiday sequence.
Jim also did paintings of one of my favorites, Tippi Hedren:
Many thanks to Mark for reaching out to me and sharing all of this amazing material!
See more Disneyland Golden Horseshoe photos at my main website.
