The New Hope Artists Colony: Walter E. Schofield

"The Rapids" by Walter E. Schofield

"At times even an artist as rugged as Walter Schofield was thwarted by the force of nature. On 14 November, 1911, Schofield was in Marlboro, Massachusetts, painting snow, probably in advance of its arrival in Pennsylvania. He wrote to his wife: 'Today I went out in the morning to work but the wind was so strong with about 8 degrees of frost that I had to give it up. It just seemed to go right through me and besides, the easel blew over every few minutes.'

In another letter he outlined and justified his approach to landscape painting: '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, nature is always vital, even in her implicit moods and never denies a vision to the real lover.'

One of his boldest and most dynamic snow scenes is 'The Rapids,' ca. 1914. In this work the artist employs an extremely high horizon line and centers the viewer's attention in the foreground on a snowcapped clump of rocks and the turbulent waters of the rapids. In this vivid winter landscape, the artist conveys the vigor of nature and emphasizes the sensation of iciness and the effect of motion in this study of rushing water. It was in such a virile subject that Schofield found his forte. The power of the subject is emphasized by the scale of the work, which measures 50" x 60"."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Pennsylvania Impressionists" by Thomas Folk.)