SCHOFIELD, Walter Elmer

1867 - 1944

Walter Elmer Schofield

Walter Elmer Schofield was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 10 September 1867, youngest of the eight children of Benjamin Schofield (1820–1900) and his wife, British born Mary née Wollstonecraft (1822–1899). After attending Central High School, he enrolled for a brief time at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania taking frequent trips to the American southwest, particularly to San Antonio, Texas, where he produced drawings of the American western life. On leaving college he continued his work as an artist also attending Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia 1889-1892 followed by studies at the Académie Julian in Paris under William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Edmond Aman-Jean (1858–1936) and Gabriel-Joseph-Marie-Augustin Ferrier (1847–1914). Walter married at Ormskirk, Lancashire on 7 October 1896, Murielle Charlotta Redmayne (24 June 1869-15 June 1960), daughter of the very wealthy Ephraim Brownlow Redmayne (1836-1914) and Charlotta Taubman (1842-1931), who had married at Liverpool on 10 January 1863. During the First World War, Walter served as a Captain in the Royal Garrison Artillery and about 1925 purchased the historic High House, Otley, Suffolk which, with one of his two sons, Sydney Elmer Schofield, an architect, renovated the house. However, in 1937 the family purchased from the Duke of Leeds, Godolphin House, Kerrier, Cornwall and the following year they joined in the artist colony of St Ives. His best-known American landscapes are those of the region of the Delaware River and Canal c1925-1940, spending periods of most years in the United States with his English landscapes being produced about 1901 to 1944. An Associate of the Royal Society of British Artists 1907 and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters 1910. He exhibited at the Royal Academy also showing at the Walker Art Gallery; Royal Society of British Artists; Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour and the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1939, together with his wife and son, were living at Godolphin Manse, Kerrier, Cornwall. Walter Elmer Schofield died at Godolphin House, Breage, Helston, Cornwall on 1 March 1944 and interred in Saint James the Less Church, Philadelphia.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from St Ives, Cornwall
1906 253 Late Afternoon
from 9 Duoro Place, Kensington, London
1923 314 Winter Sunlight
from Otley High House, Ipswich
1936 533 Pentire, Cornwall




Works by This Artist