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Curator's Comments Continued: Schofield made more than forty crossings of the Atlantic by steamer, and, between 1902 and 1937, the only years when he did not visit the U.S. were the War years. He always favoured the American exhibition circuit and American patrons and, during the first three decades of the twentieth century, he became regarded as one of the top-ranking American landscape painters and is now ranked as one of the most important of the American Impressionists. In 1904, his "Center Bridge, Across the River," earned a Carnegie Institute medal, establishing him as a talent that would continue to flourish and evolve, until it came to dominate pre-WWII American landscape painting. His medal tally at American and International exhibitions is impressive and includes a ‘Mention Honorable’ at the Paris Salon in 1900, a Gold Medal at the 1910 Buenos Aires Exhibition, the Medal of Honour from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 and a silver medal at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. in 1926. In fact, the Corcoran held three one-man exhibitions of his work in 1912, 1920 and 1931.
Schofield is best known for his virile and vigorously brushwork, best seen in his snow scenes, painted in Bucks County and in his marine landscapes like the Coast of Cornwall. He was fascinated by the rocky coast of Cornwall--where the Atlantic grinds against the final edge of the European tectonic plate with massive strength. Cornwall, like the French corniche, is derived from the Celtic cornu, or horn, here meaning promontory, or headland, and the province itself is a rocky thrust into the Atlantic from England's southwest tip. Schofield catches that grinding process of sea on stone, a vast "mill" in the oldest English poems, as nature paints an impressionist rendering of the endlessly forming multiple planes of rock faces covered with watery weed that signals its endless vitality. Schofield went from the impressionism of his 1914 American masterpiece "The Rapids," which hangs in the Smithsonian, to the unique modernism that characterizes his final nature paintings, done during his Godolphin period. These later works are in a new impressionist mode, which saw Schofield limit his palette, to a spectrum of green hues, along with his typical whites, blacks and cobalt blues--to produce genuine magnificence. Woodland Stream shows the same interaction. Here the water and woods mesh more subtly but the process of generation is clearly at work. There is much insight in Schofield's remark that "nature is always vital, even in her implicit moods and never denies a vision" to the artist. Both works are superb paintings that exhibit an endless fascination with nature's imperfect perfection and the magnificence it creates.
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Curator's Comments: The oldest continuously run frame-making company in the United States, Newcomb Macklin Company of Chicago (and later New York City as well) specialized in making frames for the American Impressionists, including Sargent, Hassam and many others. Founded 1871 , by S.H. McElwain, it was christened Newcomb Macklin when McElwain introduced his bookkeeper, Charles Macklin, to John C. Newcomb and they became partners in 1883. The frame-makers of Newcomb Macklin were a group of largely unknown but exceptionally talented woodcarvers and designers, motivated by the turn-of-the-century arts and crafts movement--with its roots in beaux arts style. Drawing from a wide variety of frame designs, Newcomb Macklin framed for many important American painters including Schofield, Whistler, Sargent and Bellows. Stanford White the famous architect, best known for New York City's Washington Square Arch, was also a serious frame designer and many of his Renaissance-inspired frames were executed by Newcomb Macklin. In 1979, the company was purchased by Thanhardt-Burger and relocated. Original Newcomb Macklin frames are considered antiques today. Our thumb nails show details of Newcomb Macklin joinery. |
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