Wissahickon in Winter

Schofield painted Wissahickon in Winter on the Wissahickon Creek close to his brother’s stately home on Moreland Avenue in Chestnut Hill. This was the artist’s home base in the United States during the art season from fall through spring. In his childhood, Schofield knew the Wissahickon as an industrial mill creek, home to many of the city’s important paper mills. In his lifetime, he saw the mills demolished and the natural beauty restored, largely due to the efforts of the Woodward family (neighbors and collectors of his work), other philanthropists, and the City of Philadelphia. The goal was to protect the city’s water supply and add to the remarkable green asset of Fairmount Park.  

A leading figure of American Impressionism, Schofield was born in Philadelphia. After briefly attending Swarthmore College, he worked as a cowboy in Texas, where ranch hands encouraged him to pursue art. He went on to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 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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