Was Paul Detlefsen’s “Horse & Buggy Day’s” painting the inspiration for E. L. Moore’s Blacksmith Shop?

Left: E. L. Moore's Blacksmith, RMC Sept '67 | Right: Paul Detlefsen's Horse & Buggy Days

I'll start by getting right to the point: I think Paul Detlefsen's Horse & Buggy Days painting was the inspiration for E. L. Moore's blacksmith barn that appeared in the September 1967 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Evidence? It's a little speculative, but let's begin with the opening statements in Mr. Moore's article:

Although I recall quite a few blacksmith shops from the distant days of my youth, I'm still unable to pinpoint any one which appeared to be housed in a building of its own specifications. Mostly, it seemed, one just happened along and took over a building then grew into it and eventually became a part of it.

But this one - it certainly must have been designed and built exclusively for the use of a smithy - or so I would like to think. It came from my wall, right over my desk - at least the artist's conception of it - and he has made such an interesting study of the old shop that I never quite tire of looking at it. There it stands, in the prime of life, solidly built and well painted, and it looks the way one likes to image a blacksmith shop should look; a little shop at the outskirts of a village or at a crossroads.

Original photo of blacksmith by E. L. Moore

I built my model in HO, but along the same general lines, with a loft door and ladder, gambrel roof and stone foundation. I did, however, lower the foundation a bit, and moved the forge over near the door. Whether the artist saw a cupola or not is impossible to tell because of the tree's foliage, but since one adds much to the image, I gave mine one. Then, too, I added a lean-to woodshed to the side, and a gabled retreat off the rear where the smithy may wish to retire to tot up his accounts. And I'm not referring to the little house out back with the moon shaped ventilators.

From the above description, the model photograph, and comparison with the Defletsen painting, you can see the similarities, but that's not enough to connect them. 

AHM's plastic kit of E. L. Moore's Blacksmith

Wikipedia tells me that when Mr. Detlefsen retired from matte painting for Hollywood movies he turned his attention to painting scenes of rural life in late 1800s and early 1900s America, and making reproductions of them available in the form of, among other things, prints and calendars. Mr. Moore specialized in buildings and scenes of the same era, so it's not much of a stretch to think that what was on the wall above his desk he referred to in his article was a Detlefsen calendar or print. The Wikipedia article also notes that in 1969 it was estimated that 80% of Americans had seen Detlefsen's work. Mr. Moore submitted the manuscript in June '67, so by 1967 there was likely maximum circulation of Detlefsen art in various forms available in the marketplace.

Ok, I admit all my 'evidence' is circumstantial and the connections are speculative, but you've got to admit it's intriguing.