SCHOFIELD: Celebrating the Art of Uncle Elmer by Woodmere Art Museum

JUST IN: SCHOFIELD Celebrating the Art of Uncle Elmer

CONTENTS Foreword by William R. Valerio 3 Biography 6 Schofield’s Frames 8 Illustrated Works 10

November 7, 2020–April 11, 2021

Schofield designed this needlepoint for his niece, Sarah Phillips, who completed it about 1932. It depicts the family’s summerhouse near Great Barrington, Massachusetts

DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD A leader among the Pennsylvania

Sarah Phillips gave a group of important

Impressionists and a central figure in

paintings to the Museum to ensure his

the broader American Impressionism

legacy in perpetuity.

movement, Walter Elmer Schofield

This exhibition celebrates the art of

made paintings that are sought after by

“Uncle Elmer,” as Schofield was known

museums and collectors throughout the

in Chestnut Hill. We are pleased to

United States. He is counted among the

showcase new acquisitions from the

handful of American artists whose work

collection of the artist’s late grand-niece,

was collected by the Louvre Museum in

Margaret “Peg” Phillips, together with

their lifetimes. But no other institution

purchases she made possible through

boasts as many of his important works

her estate. Among the many wonderful

as Woodmere, largely as the result

paintings on view, Wissahickon in Winter,

of the artist’s personal connection to

Montmartre, Early Winter Morning, and

the Museum. Every year through the

Steam Trawlers, Boulogne take their place

art season, from fall through spring,

among the star works in the Museum’s

Schofield lived in Chestnut Hill with his

collection. We extend our deepest thanks

brother and nieces in their family home

to Peg and to her extended family,

at 408 West Moreland Street. Usually,

including Marcia Hill, Chip Goehring, Mary

from late spring through summer, he

Jo Baum, and many others for the trust

resided in Great Britain.

they place in Woodmere. We are honored

Schofield was a friend and colleague

to show Schofield’s work and to tell the

to Edith Emerson, artist and director

artist’s story.

of Woodmere from the early 1940s through 1978. After Schofield’s death in

WILLIAM R. VALERIO, PHD

1944, Emerson worked with his family

The Patricia Van Burgh Allison

to organize a memorial exhibition at

Director and CEO

the Museum. At that time, his niece

JUST IN: SCHOFIELD Celebrating the Art of Uncle Elmer

BIOGRAPHY Born in Philadelphia in 1866, Walter Elmer Schofield was the son of successful businessman Benjamin Schofield, who had immigrated to Philadelphia from England and founded the Delph Spinning Company. He attended Swarthmore Preparatory School for a year and graduated from Central High School. After stints as a ranch hand in Texas and in the family business, he found his calling in the arts. Schofield studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and at the Académie Julian in Paris, remaining in France for a time afterward to travel, paint, and immerse himself in French Impressionism. In 1886, Schofield married an Englishwoman, Muriel Charlotta Redmayne, and the couple took up residency in the United Kingdom. From

Walter Elmer Schofield, 1931

that time onward, Schofield divided his

In the years leading up to World War

time between his home in England, and

I, Schofield was considered one of the

his brother’s family home in Chestnut

great American landscape painters,

Hill. He almost always spent the art

winning prizes in important exhibitions

season, from fall through spring, in the

and accumulating numerous honors.

United States so he could participate in

He volunteered for service in the British

exhibitions and remain connected to the

Army in 1915, and as a second lieutenant,

American art scene.

served in the Battle of the Somme and 6

the Hundred Days Offensive, which

In 1938, he traveled to England for

led to the German surrender. He was

the last time. By that time, he and his

demobilized in 1919.

wife had taken up residence on the historic Godolphin estate, which was

Schofield is best known for grand winter

being restored by their son Sydney, a

landscapes made mostly in Pennsylvania,

preservation-minded architect. Due to

although he did travel and paint in New

health issues and the upheavals of World

England and Maine. In England, he

War II, Schofield could not return to the

depicted the rocky cliffs, rustic farms,

United States. He died in England in

and cottages of Cornwall, but he also

1944. Per his wishes, his remains were

painted elsewhere in England and in

eventually brought back to Philadelphia.

France. He sketched and made smaller

He is buried in the family plot in the

pictures en plein air at picturesque

Cemetery of St. James the Less (near to

sites and remote fishing villages, but

Laurel Hill Cemetery).

composed and executed his large canvases in the studio. In the 1930s, he visited the American West, painting in Arizona and California. Although Schofield was extroverted and fun-loving throughout his life, the experience of serving in the war remained with him to the end of his days. From the 1920s onward, his work conveys a nostalgia for a simpler time, and his famous depictions of the crashing waves and cliffs of Cornwall embrace the ongoing momentum of nature, free of human activity and worldly concern.

SCHOFIELD’S FRAMES Like other Pennsylvania Impressionists,

applied to soften the corners and create

Schofield was deliberate and opinionated

an “antique” appearance. A layer of color

in selecting frames for his work. He

called “bole” is then applied over the

commissioned gilded frames from well-

gesso to give tonal accent and create

known makers like Newcomb-Macklin

a surface for the adherence of the gold

of Chicago (see The Steam Trawlers,

leaf.

Boulogne) and Maurice Grieve, who had

Schofield’s Wissahickon in Winter is

workshops in New York and London.

set in an original Harer frame. This

These framers were favored by the high-

frame and its star-pattern punchwork

end art galleries of the time, and to work

inspired the new frames that Woodmere

with them was to invest in presentation.

commissioned from conservator and

Schofield was also instrumental in

frame maker Dean Khan for Early Winter

establishing the fashion for the frames

Morning, Montmartre, First Snow Fall, and

of his artist friends Frederick Harer and

The Harbor, Mevagissey.

Bernard Badura, who were inspired by

Khan notes that both Harer and Badura

the handmade aesthetic and premodern

liked the cassetta frame because the

techniques of the American Arts and

broad, open surfaces of the gilded planks

Crafts movement. The cassetta, or

allowed for creativity and embellishments

plank, style frame of the early Italian

such as distressing, scratch patterns,

Renaissance was their model, and they

punchwork, tooling, and pictorial

studied frames and decorative gilding

“graffiti.” His new frame for Montmartre

in the Italian painting collection of the

is particularly fanciful, with pictorial

Philadelphia Museum of Art.

elements suited to the painting’s subject,

To make a cassetta frame, four flat planks

as inspired by the frames of Badura. He

are joined at the corner, sometimes with

describes the process of making and

slip joints, with a mitered inner molding

applying the gesso and bole used in

and outer molding affixed with glue at

these frames:

the edges. A thick layer of white gesso is 8

Traditional gesso is always stark white, a mixture of rabbit skin glue (or other animal hide glue) with calcium carbonate, sometimes referred to as whiting or chalk. It looks like wet plaster. To prepare a wood surface for gilding, I usually apply about ten coats of gesso to build up enough thickness. Once it’s dry, it gets smoothed out and then a few coats of bole are applied to get the undertone. Bole is colored clay finely ground and mixed into rabbit skin glue. It comes in a variety of earth-tone colors, typically red, black, yellow ochre, various tans, and browns, the same tones you see on the clay slip decorations on Navajo pots. Once the bole is hardened, the leaf is applied by wetting the surface, which reactivates the glue in the materials, and then laying the leaf.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

WALTER ELMER SCHOFIELD American, 1866–1944

Schofield immersed himself in the study

Montmartre c. 1896 Oil on canvas 37 x 47 1/2 in.

the country with fellow painters Robert

of Impressionism while living in France at different times in the 1890s. He stayed in Fontainebleau and Brittany, and toured Henri and William Glackens in 1895. He painted Montmartre while living in Paris. This is thought to have been the view from the window of the apartment he rented: an image of the very café

Funding for the purchase of Montmartre— in honor of Miss Margaret E. Phillips and in memory of her parents, Sarah M. Phillips (née Schofield) and Herbert L. Phillips—made possible by the Walter Elmer Schofield Legacy Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, 2019

and bistro he would have frequented every day. In Schofield’s painting, bright summer light traverses the varied textures and warm creams and ochres of Montmartre’s distinctive stucco facades. The artist may have been inspired by paintings of the Parisian cityscape by his French contemporary Camille Pissarro, such as Avenue de l’Opéra: Morning Sunshine, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That painting was originally acquired by the Tyson family of Chestnut Hill, with whom the Schofields were friendly.

CONSERVATION AND A NEW FRAME FOR MONTMARTRE

When Woodmere acquired this painting,

sign for a hotel, can be seen at right.

it was in need of conservation. More

In addition, the two female figures at

than an inch along the bottom and right

bottom center, previously cut off, are

edges had been wrapped around the

now visible. Restoring them is crucial to

back of a new set of stretchers. It is

the composition, which balances on that

fortunate that the painting was not cut

central point. In addition, it is through

down, as sometimes happens, because

those figures that we as viewer become

two important differences emerged when

immersed in this charming, fabled world

we restored the painting to its proper

of Parisian café life.

size. The word “HOT,” a fragment of the 12

The painting also required a frame.

patterns and symbolic flourishes—like

Woodmere commissioned a frame

the fleur-de-lis—that might be specific to

profile of the type Schofield would

a commission or to a painting’s subject.

often purchase from his friend Frederick

With this in mind, we encouraged frame

Harer, an artist and fellow student at the

conservator Dean Khan to be creative.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. We chose a silver frame (as Schofield sometimes did) to contrast with the warm gold tones of the painting. Harer would sometimes scratch in decorative 13

March Snow 1906 Oil on canvas 38 x 48 in.

Schofield painted March Snow outdoors, directly from nature, without any preliminary studies. The snow of March may be the last snow of winter. The approach of spring is suggested by the warm light that bathes the landscape.

Gift of Sydney and Seymour Schofield, 1949

As the snow melts, tracks emerge from below. A large, diagonal shadow in the

Conservation of this work was made possible by the generous contribution of Mrs. George S. Opp in 1990.

foreground contrasts with the bright light that permeates the scene beyond. In 1912, the president of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, prominent banker, philanthropist, and art collector Charles C. Glover purchased March Snow for $900. He returned it to the artist in the early 1920s, part of an exchange to purchase a more recent painting. In 1949, after Schofield’s death, March Snow was donated to Woodmere as a gift from his sons, Sydney and Seymour Schofield.

Early Winter Morning 1908–1909 Oil on canvas 45 x 60 in.

This work is also remarkable for its formal qualities and spatial dynamics. The embankment curves in toward the horizontal river in the distance as a phalanx of leafless trees marches from front left to rear right. As if countering

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

this illusion of deep space, Schofield applies paint in vertical and horizontal strokes, a rich tapestry of earthy tones and free painterly gestures. The white of

Early Winter Morning was the type of

the snow seems to melt into the moist,

monumental winter landscape that made

cold ground.

Schofield’s reputation. He depicts a view that he must have sketched while

When Woodmere acquired this painting,

standing on the man-made embankment

it was in great need of conservation,

of an industrial canal as it arrives at

covered in a layer of grime and with a

its junction with the Delaware River.

pinkish linoleum adhesive across parts

Such canals snaked their way across

of the lower foreground, perhaps to hide

Pennsylvania, a network of waterways

some paint loss. With the grime and

that connected the natural resources of

adhesive removed, careful inpainting was

the western part of the state—coal, wood,

applied. Woodmere also commissioned

slate, and stone—with the markets in East

a new frame of the type Schofield often

Coast cities. Schofield’s subject is not

selected.

the romance of nature that preoccupied the American landscape painters of a previous generation. Instead his focus is the land itself, stripped of its verdant beauty by winter and shaped by man to enable the creation of modern American wealth.

The Steam Trawlers, Boulogne 1909 Oil on canvas 42 1/3 x 54 1/2 in.

Among Schofield’s lifelong friends and

Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Margaret E. Phillips’ Walter Elmer Schofield Legacy Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation and James M. Alterman, 2020

Schofield shared his friends’ interest in

colleagues were Robert Henri, John Sloan, and William Glackens, Philadelphia artists who moved to New York and were driving forces in the art movement known as the Ashcan School. The Steam Trawlers, Boulogne demonstrates that urban and industrial subjects. Trawlers are work boats that dredge or drag nets in harbors. Like the tugboats that Schofield’s friends depicted in the New York harbor, they symbolize the modern age and the hard work that makes modernity possible. Schofield traveled widely in France in the 1890s with Glackens and Henri, but in 1908 he visited Boulogne alone. There, he wrote to his wife, Muriel, about this painting: I have two big ones [paintings] that I think are good and if I get nothing else here they will pay for the trip—possibly— it’s such lonely work here that I think another week will probably wind it up. Of course I won’t leave if I think I am getting good stuff out of it, dear, but it gets on my nerves to be absolutely alone the whole twenty-four hours. 19

Hill Country c. 1913 Oil on canvas 50 x 60 in.

A constant traveler, Schofield enjoyed painting dramatic views of nature. Here, his expressive brushstrokes capture alternate moods: the strength of a manmade road that cuts through a wintry landscape and the life of delicate plants

Gift of Sydney and Seymour Schofield, 1949

emerging from a ditch that runs along its side. The road disappears at the horizon

Funding for conservation of this work was given in loving memory of James E. Edwards, through the generous contribution of his wife and sons in 2000.

line, bringing the viewer’s attention to a stand of trees in the upper right. Hill Country is an example of a largeformat painting made in the studio from preliminary studies done in plein air, although the original sketches are not known. Hill Country was exhibited at PAFA’s 109th Annual Exhibition and was awarded the Temple Gold Medal. The painting never sold and thus it accumulated one of the longest and most distinguished exhibition histories of any of Schofield’s major works.

Wissahickon in Winter 1920 Oil on canvas 30 x 36 in.

From the 1920s until the 1940s, while living at his brother’s family home at 408 West Moreland Avenue in Chestnut Hill, Schofield would walk the Cresheim Valley and paint the Wissahickon. A special work for the family, Wissahickon

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

in Winter was hung prominently in their home. It was handed down in the family until it was recently given to Woodmere. Schofield was acquainted with Chestnut Hill “founders” George and Gertrude Woodward, who were collectors of his work. The artist was aware that the Wissahickon he knew and loved had to a great extent been transformed and renaturalized thanks to the foresight and generosity of the Woodwards, together with the City of Philadelphia. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Wissahickon had become a busy and in some areas barren mill creek, home to a portion of Philadelphia’s paper industry. It was only in Schofield’s lifetime that the mills were purchased and demolished and native trees, perhaps like the sycamores depicted here, were planted. The goal was to protect the city’s water supply and add to its remarkable green asset, Fairmount Park.

Morning Tide—Coast of Cornwall c. 1920 Oil on canvas 50 x 60 in.

Throughout his career, Schofield found

Gift of the Estate of the artist through Mrs. Herbert Phillips, 1952

with a scene in which humanity is absent,

inspiration in the qualities and conditions of the Pennsylvania and English landscapes. He painted onsite in all kinds of weather, but finished his paintings in the studio. Made two years after the end of World War I, Morning Tide presents us but nature’s power and beauty endure.

Nearing Spring 1922 Oil on canvas 26 x 30 in.

Nearing Spring is a particularly fine example of the type of domestic-scaled landscapes that Schofield produced for his collectors through the 1920s. Here he depicts seasonal change and transformation. It is still winter, but

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

touches of warm orange and a glow of golden light bathe the cool snowy banks, signaling the approach of spring. It is thought that the artist made this painting on a trip through New England.

Phillack Bridge 1923 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 in.

This canvas depicts the hamlet of

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

When asked how the experience of

Undercliff, Phillack, at the head of the Hayle estuary in western Cornwall, a region of the United Kingdom where Schofield frequently traveled.

serving in the first World War affected Schofield’s outlook on life, the artist’s niece Margaret Phillips turned to this painting as an example of the type of subject that appealed to him in the years after the war. She described the ancient hamlet of structures and their dreamlike reflections in the rippling water as the embodiment of a nostalgic yearning for a better world, unbesmirched by modern man.

Bridge in Suffolk c. 1925 Oil on canvas board 11 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.

In 1927, Schofield and his wife purchased historic Otley High House in the county of Suffolk in England. From there, the artist would journey through the countryside with a supply of small prepared canvas boards and make quick

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

impressionistic views, like this one. He would capture the picturesque features of architecture and nature as they interacted with light and shadow, but also determine the main components of a composition he might return to later in the studio. Otley High House was a significant structure dating back to the fifteenth century, with a moat and a grandscaled entrance hall. Inspired by his parents’ passion for historic architecture, Sydney Schofield, the artist’s younger son, pursued a successful career as a preservation architect. He carried out the much-needed preservation and conservation of Otley High House. Elmer and Muriel sold Otley in 1937 when Sydney purchased Godolphin, an even more significant estate in Cornwall; the “Gwenda House” on the Godolphin estate would become their British home base.

Study of Cottages in Winter c. 1925 Oil on wood panel 11 3/4 x 16 in. Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

Lapping Tides 1926 Oil on canvas 26 x 30 in.

The landscape painter is of necessity, an outdoors man . . . for vitality and convincing quality only come to the man who serves, not in the studio, but out in the open where even the things he fights against strengthen him, because you see,

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

nature is always vital, even in her implicit moods and never denies a vision to the real lover. —Walter Elmer Schofield As suggested by the quote above, Schofield understood that his masculine identity was tied to his artistic pursuits. He battled the raw strength of nature, here the ocean (think of Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea), and caressed Mother Nature’s tender beauty, soothing her “implicit moods” like a “real lover.” Throughout his career, Schofield painted Cornwall’s famous cliffs, rocky shores, and sea views. These works were popular, and he made them in small, medium, and large sizes to suit his collectors’ needs. The spontaneous energy of this picture suggests that he may have started it outdoors and completed it later in the studio.

The Harbor, Mevagissey Late 1920s Oil on wood panel 12 x 14 in.

In the exhibition catalogue for Woodmere’s 2014 exhibition Schofield: International Impressionist, Therese Dolan, professor emerita of modern and contemporary art at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

noted the connection between the French Impressionists and Schofield as exemplified in the artist’s harbor paintings: Schofield’s many great harbor scenes . . . adopt a viewpoint from above similar to that used by Renoir in La Grenouillère (1869), which, even in Schofield’s time, was generally acknowledged to be one of the “birthplace” paintings of French Impressionism. Both artists embraced modern life in their views of leisure. Schofield’s loose handling of the reflections in the water testifies to his rejection of the subtleties of modeling form and the academic subject matter of his teacher Bouguereau. As early as 1903, […], the treatment of water is a feature of painterly virtuosity. To this day, Mevagissey Harbor retains the character of an old-fashioned fishing village, and remains a picturesque destination in Cornwall. 37

Cottage in Cornwall 1930 Oil on canvas 20 x 34 in.

Schofield’s was no modernist. Although he absorbed the lessons of composition, formal invention, and free brushwork of modern art, he rejected the hard edges of 1920s Art Deco and the disjointed expressionism of Cubism. Instead, he

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

favored of subjects that embrace the unchanging beauty of times that he believed were simpler and less fraught. Schofield’s many paintings of thatched or stone cottages and pre-modern fishing harbors are expressions of nostalgia. Here, the bright white stucco surfaces of an elegant seaside cottage in Cornwall absorb the light of crisp sunshine beneath an impressively expansive sky. We can sense the seaside breeze and enjoy the abundant flowers of an English country garden. We might ask: who wouldn’t want to live in this world that Schofield conjures?

Trenwith—Cornish Farm 1932 Oil on canvas 40 x 48 in.

The Trenwith family, whose farm is depicted here, had been associated with the town of St. Ives, Cornwall, since the Middle Ages. But in reality, their buildings were not dramatically perched above the cliffs as Schofield renders them here.

Museum purchase, 1946

The painting is an invention; Schofield constructs the scene with a curving road

Conservation of this work was made possible by the generous contribution of William M. Leach, Jr. and family in memory of Jeffrey Leach in 1993.

and grouping of architectural structures in the foreground juxtaposed with a backdrop of Cornwall’s great cliffs. It is possible that the artist assembled the landscape itself, in the manner of a collage, from several independent studies.

Morning Light, Tujunga 1934 Oil on board 30 x 35 in.

Schofield traveled incessantly, and in the 1930s, his passion was Southern California. There, he painted the landscape of Tujunga Canyon and the Grand Tujunga Ranch, which lie to the northeast of Los Angeles. He depicts the

Gift of Leigh and Sally Marsh, 1992

rocky terrain in vivid blues, greens, and oranges, applying paint freely and in a loose, open manner. In a series of radio talks in the fall of 1934, Schofield described his attraction of California’s unique natural features: There is no doubt in my mind that the State of California and particularly Southern California is a perfect paradise for the out-of-doors painters. Coupled with the wonderful climate, there is a great diversity of physical features, the numerous canyons each having a separate charm, the splendid coastline and the many natural parks with the wealth of trees, oak, pepper, sycamore, eucalyptus, etc. I have never seen finer sycamore trees that are to be found in Irvine Park, silvery white with far-flung limbs, intermingled with oaks, eucalyptus, and many others. And a riot of color too. Could anything be more tempting to the landscape painter than these grand old sycamore against a sky of purest blue? 43

Mine Builders, Arizona c. 1935 Oil on panel 30 x 36 in.

In 1934, when he was sixty-eight years old, Schofield traveled to Arizona, seeking rugged new landscapes to paint; he was still the outdoorsman-artist he had been throughout his career. The region’s crisp atmosphere and bright

Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Margaret E. Phillips’ Walter Elmer Schofield Legacy Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation and James M. Alterman, 2020

light inspired a new color palette: blue and lavender shadows fall on the warm yellow terrain, invoking the dry heat of the desert. The red building stands out, a bold yet humble symbol of American industry.

Boats at Dock c. 1935 Oil on panel 25 x 30 in.

style, with bright colors to charm the

Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Margaret E. Phillips’ Walter Elmer Schofield Legacy Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation and James M. Alterman, 2020

In Schofield’s time, San Pedro provided

eye. Red decks, white pilot houses, green and white hulls. One can readily picture what this means under the brilliant sun of California.”

the growing city with a continuous supply of fresh seafood. Today, it is one of the world’s largest industrial ports. If he were to return today, Schofield would

In 1934, Schofield accepted a teaching

find few traces of the quaint port he

opportunity in a painting studio in the

found so charming.

San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles. While there, he produced a number of paintings of the port and its boats. “What a different world it is here!” he wrote to his wife, Muriel, back in England. “These people are hospitable–I’m out nearly every night, somewhere—and a lot of publicity, which they all seem to strive madly for.” Schofield would also describe San Pedro as “one of the greatest and most interesting fishing harbors in the world, and I have seen many here in the United States and abroad . . . . Not only is there industry but color and form as well. Every variety of boat, French, American, Swedish, Japanese, each peculiar in 47

First Snow Fall 1939 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 in.

In 1938, Schofield left the United States for a sojourn in Great Britain for the last time. He didn’t plan to stay in England, but delicate health and the violence of the second World War made it impossible for him to return to

Gift of the Margaret E. Phillips 2017 Artworks Trust, 2020

Philadelphia. Schofield’s final years were spent at Godolphin, the extraordinary estate that his son Sydney purchased in 1937 in central Cornwall. Situated on approximately 550 acres that included medieval gardens, the seventeenthcentury manor house had once been home to Sidney Godolphin, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Anne. Godolphin is used as a setting in the BBC series Poldark (set in Cornwall) and is purported to be haunted. Paintings like First Snow Fall and other depictions of the land and farm at Godolphin are often thought to be views of the Pennsylvania landscape the artist loved so much.

Untitled [Harbor Scene] Date unknown Oil on canvas 19 x 22 1/2 in

This landscape is likely a scene of a harbor in Cornwall, England, possibly along the docks in Penzance, along the southern coast of the United Kingdom, where from 1904 onwards Schofield spent much of his summer months. His

Gift of Patricia Allison, 1998

penchant for strong, vivid color draws attention towards the moody scene. Schofield here depicts a hazy view of the harbor, opting for a harmony of cool and warm tones to describe the surroundings. Cool colors are at their most intense among the shadows between the resting sail boats. Three red-faced sailors -two tying a boat to the dock- seem to appear through a second glance, largely obscured by the crimson of the boats around them.

Woodmere Art Museum receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Support provided in part by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

© 2020 Woodmere Art Museum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher. Photography provided by Jack Ramsdale unless otherwise noted. Catalogue designed by Christina Warhola and edited by Gretchen Dykstra. Front cover: Montmartre, c. 1896 (Funding for the purchase of Montmartre—in honor of Miss Margaret E. Phillips and in memory of her parents, Sarah M. Phillips (née Schofield) and Herbert L. Phillips—made possible by the Walter Elmer Schofield Legacy Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, 2019)

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