American Masterpieces from Dryads Green Gallery (Please Scroll Down--Catalogue is Alphabetical by Artist Last Name)

Two Newly Offered Magnificent Schofield's For Sale!

"The Coast of Cornwall"

"A Woodland Stream"

Artist Name:       Walter Elmer Schofield Artist Dates:        1867 - 1944 Painting Date:      1914 Medium:             Oil on Canvas Signature:            Signed Provenance:         Private Collection Condition:            Excellent Size Unframed:    26 x 30 Frame Condition:  Newcomb Macklin* Artist Best Price:   $456,000 Offered At:          $65,000

Artist Name:       Walter Elmer Schofield Artist Dates:        1867 - 1944 Painting Date:      1931 Medium:             Oil on Canvas Signature:            Signed Provenance:         Private Collection Condition:            Excellent Size Unframed:    26 x 30 Frame Condition:  Antique Artist Best Price:   $456,000 Offered At:          $55,000

*Click Here For Our Separate Illustrated Discussion of Newcomb Macklin Framing

Curator's Comments: In 1895, with his charismatic and influential friend, painter Robert Henri, and fellow art student William Glackens, Walter Elmer Schofield started in Paris and  bicycled round Holland and Belgium to view the Dutch masters. The trip that established him as the "landscape bird," among the Philadelphia Gang. The phrase comes from a letter from Sloan to Henri, where the far lesser painter calls Schofield's work  "remarkably knowing for a  landscape bird." And indeed Schofield ranks with Redfield as one of the leading American impressionist landscape painters. He was born September 10, 1867 in Philadelphia.  His parents had emigrated from England, and Schofield descended from an illustrious creative family; his mother, Mary Wollstonecraft Schofield, was the grand-niece of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Not enjoying the best of health as a child, he was sent out West by his father to toughen him up, and, for eighteen months in 1884-5, he lived the life of a cowboy.  Schofield  went on to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, studying with Thomas Anshutz from 1889-92, before leaving for the Academie Julian in Paris, where he studied under Bouguereau, and Ferrier,  but his travels in France and especially Brittany fired his enthusiasm for Impressionism. In October 1897, he married Muriel Redmayne, whom he had met initially in Philadelphia.  In 1901, they emigrated to England, living initially in Southport, Muriel's former hometown.  In 1903, now with two young sons, they  moved to St Ives, Cornwall, where they stayed for four years, during which time he was instrumental in getting work by his St Ives friends, particularly Hayley Lever, hung in American shows.  His focus on landscape painting intensified, and  he was influenced by the plein-air approach of the artist colony. He adopted a broader view and lighter palette, and proclaimed to his compatriots: “Zero weather, rain, falling snow, wind - all of these things to contend with only make the open-air painter love the fight...He is an open-air man, wholesome, healthy, hearty, and his art, sane and straightforward, reflects his temperament.”  In addition, Schofield started to use huge canvases for his outdoor works, and the result was boldly painted panoramic landscapes.

The Artist, ca. 1935

"Spring Morning" brought $57,000 in 2005

"Cornish Coast"brought $43,000 in 2008

Independent researcher and descendant James Church, based on Scholfield's letter to his wife (Polperro, 7/8/14) and records of the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY, believes that The Coast of Cornwall was painted during a visit in the summer of 1914. "From the inspection of the photographs provided," he writes, "both picture and frame appear to be similar in style to those used by Schofield before the Great War." And a further work from this visit, Polperro Harbor, signed and dated ’14, is still in the colllection of the Memorial Art Gallery.  It was at this venue and alongside this smaller work that The Coast of Cornwall seems to have been shown  in 1915 as follows: An Exhibition of Paintings by W.Elmer Schofield (February 16 – March 7, 1915) No. 27 The Coast of Cornwall. While overseeing the exhibition in Rochester, Schofield was photographed painting The Lower Falls in snow from the Driving Park Bridge and this featured in a newspaper article in March 1915. The finished canvas of The Lower Falls was then placed on the line at the exhibition and is now also in the Permanent Collection. Soon  after this exhibition, Schofield volunteered for the British Army, although an American citizen, and served until 1919. The almost identical dimensions, similar style and certain date of The Lower Falls, are thought to provide evidence for the proposed date and exhibition history of The Coast of Cornwall. In 1921, Schofield  returned to Cornwall, living  in Perranporth for four years, but he spent as much as nine months a year in America, painting with the New Hope school  and in the West.  In 1937, his son Sidney purchased Godolphin House, a manor house dating from the 15th century, near Helston, and the Schofields returned to Cornwall in 1938.  In 1941, after his son’s marriage, they moved to Gwedna House, a smaller residence on the estate, where he died in 1944.

Essay Continues on Page Two

You may contact us at:

Click on link for:

Phone: 646-239-6142

Prior Catalogue Page

Next Catalogue  Page

Home

Email:

director@dryadsgreengallery.com

Terms & Conditions

Artist Directory