Walter Elmer Schofield

1866-1944

Walter Elmer Schofield was an American Impressionist landscape painter. Before receiving an education in the arts, Walter went through the Philadelphia public school system and spent one year at Swarthmore College before dropping out and becoming a cowboy in Texas. Returning to Philadelphia after a few years, he then decided to pursue art, studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later at the Académie Julian in Paris. Moving to England in 1899, Schofield gained an international reputation for his landscape paintings of both the English countryside and the East Coast of the United States. In fact, with the exception of WWI, he traveled between the two countries every year between 1902 and 1937. Enlisting with the British Army, he was an artilleryman during the First World War and was eventually discharged at the rank of Major. Continuing to paint throughout the 1920s and 30s, he stopped traveling overseas in 1938 and died of a heart attack in 1944.

He graduated from Central High School, Philadelphia, in 1886 and attended Swarthmore College for one year before dropping out. Later, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anshutz and Robert Vonnoh from 1889 to 1892. He then moved to Paris in 1892 and studied at the Académie Julian under William Bouguereau, Gabriel Ferrier, and Henri Lucien Doucet. Returning to Philadelphia in 1894, he consulted with many Philadelphia area painters, including brief tours to Europe to study art. He was also influenced by Les Nabis of France.