Walter Elmer Schofield, The Harbor, Mevagissey

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 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.