by Joan K. Yanni
Three paintings by
Walter Elmer Schofield are among the American Impressionist works in the
Gallery’s collection. The paintings—Lower Falls (40.42), In
the Dugway (51.59), and Polperro Bay (41.27), are
arresting, and their impressionistic brush stroke is obvious; but the artist's
name is not a familiar one.
 |
| In the Dugway |
Schofield (1867-1944)
was born in Philadelphia of English parents. He studied art at the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, where fellow students were Robert Henri, John Sloan,
William Glackens, and Edward Redfield. In late 1892 he went to Paris to
study at the Académie Julien under Bouguereau and remained in Europe for three
years.
Back in Philadelphia in
1895, he tried to work in the family business, but found painting to be his main
interest. He attended Tuesday meetings at Henri's studio on Walnut
Street, and became a regular member of the group where The Eight and other
Henri followers had animated discussions about art.
 |
| Lower Falls |
By June, 1895, Schofield
was back in Europe, this time sketching with Henri and friends, including
Glackens and Colin Campbell Cooper. While Henri studied the portraits of
Hals and Rembrandt, Schofield satisfied his craving for landscape art in the
collections in Brussels, Amsterdam and The Hague. Dark, muted tonalities
and soft hazy images became typical of Schofield's paintings: He used
soft, greenish-grays and browns, misty sfumato, nocturnal
illumination and loose brushwork. For the next ten years he was a
tonalist, using a limited range of muted colors.
 |
| Polperro Bay |
In 1897 he married
Murielle Redmayne, an English woman whom he had met when she visited
Philadelphia with her parents. At first they lived in Philadelphia, but
by 1901 they had moved to England where Murielle and their two sons could be
close to her family. They eventually moved to Cornwall, where Schofield joined
an international artists' colony and found landscapes that were an inspiration
for the rest of his life. His art barely paid for his travels, so for the
most part,
Schofield continued his
friendship with Henri and his circle and regularly went back to the United
States, though he also went on painting trips in Cornwall and throughout
Europe. He loved painting en plein air, no matter what the
weather. Often he spent the winter months in America, where he painted
the snow scenes for which he became known. Sun-filled Cornish scenes
reflect the summers he spent with Murielle.
After the move to
Cornwall, Schofield's palette changed; his brushstroke was still
impressionistic, but his colors became bright and vibrant, nature in the full
glare of sunlight. By 1915 he and Redfield (painter of our River
Hills) were known as the masters of the Pennsylvania Impressionist school.
How Schofield got to
Rochester is not clear, but he did visit here in 1914-15, when he painted the
dramatic Lower Falls (Genesee River at Rochester,
NY). The swiftly moving water from the falls seems to pour down over
the painting from the high horizon line. The dramatic perspective, with
smoke-spewing buildings at the head of the falls, creates a powerful
landscape. (MAG's Polperro Bay is a picture of
Cornwall; In the Dugway, a snow scene, is probably the area north
of Philadelphia where he loved to paint.)
In late 1915 Schofield
joined the British army, as he wrote to Henri, "to prevent Germany
goose-stepping over the world." He saw battle in France and retired
from the army with the rank of major.
During the first three
decades of the twentieth century, Schofield was regarded as one of America's
leading landscape painters. He never gave up his American citizenship,
but "commuted" between England and America. In March, 1944, he
collapsed and died after a day painting the nearby English countryside.
Source: Curatorial
Files, Catalogue for Walter Elmer
Schofield: Bold Impressionist with essay by Thomas Folk.
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