Nearing Spring

Nearing Spring is a particularly fine example of the type of domestic-scaled landscape that Schofield produced for his collectors in the 1920s. Here he depicts seasonal transformation in a hilly landscape bisected by a shallow brook. It is still winter, but touches of warm orange emerge from the earth and trees, and golden light bathes the cool snowy banks.  

A leading figure of American Impressionism, Walter Elmer Schofield was born in Philadelphia in 1869. After briefly attending Swarthmore College, he worked as a cowboy in Texas, where ranch hands encouraged him to pursue art. He accordingly attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied French Impressionism. In 1902 he settled in St. Ives, Cornwall, painting its rugged coasts and harbors while returning to Pennsylvania in the winters.

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