Walter Elmer Schofield

Walter Elmer Schofield (American, 1867–1944) By the Lake (Most Likely Tujunga, California)

Note

The present work dates from Schofield's extended trip out-west in the mid-1930s. Travelling through California and Arizona, the artist was in search of new subject matters that would contrast from his winter scenes set along the Delaware River, his spring scenes from the Cornish coast and his summer scenes in Maine. In California specifically, the artist made a series of paintings of Tujunga Canyon and the Grand Tujunga ranch, just northeast of Los Angeles. Unexpectedly, the artist felt attracted to the desert landscape and said: "There is no doubt in my mind that the State of California and particularly Southern California is a perfect paradise for the out-of-doors painters. Coupled with the wonderful climate, there is a great divesity of physical features." The present work aligns perfectly with the other body of work the artist produced in the area, and in fact relies on the same contrast between yellows and blues, earthy tones and lighter hues, to suggest the chromatic reality of life out-west: an immaculate blue sky overhanging the most golden earth.

Provenance

Collection of George Turner Marsh, San Francisco, California.

By descent in the Marsh family.

Private Collection, Northern California.