The New Hope Artists Colony: Walter Elmer Schofield, St. Ives

"Trenwith - Cornish Farm" by Walter E. Schofield

"While at St. Ives, a picturesque fishing port with winding streets and stone cottages, Walter Schofield became acquainted with the local art colony of British artists. In 1882 James Whistler and Walter Richard Sickert visited the town, and is is from this time that St. Ives became associated with new developments in British art. Prominent St. Ives artists included Sir Alfred East, Julius Olsson, Algernon Talmage, Moffat Lindner and Louis Grier. Unlike the nearby Newlyn art colony, which was noted for figure painting, the painters of St. Ives gained fame for their landscape and marine paintings. Schofield shared with the British artists of St. Ives a love of paint en plein air and a preference for large-scale canvases. 

Although Schofield never considered himself a British painter, he was a member of the Roayal Society of British Artists, the Royal Society of Oil Painters, the St. Ives Art Club, and the Chelsea Arts Club in London. He also exhibited twice at the Royal Academy and was well-respected by British painters. At the time of Schofield's death, English papers printed 'An Appreciation' of him by Stanhope Forbes, the founder of the Newlyn Art Colony. Schofield did not seek English patronage and found his best market, even for his English scenes, in the United States.

To be continued

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