Walter Elmer Schofield was born in Philadelphia in 1867. He attended Swathmore College and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, studying with Thomas Anshutz from 1889 to 1892. He then traveled to Paris where he studied at the Academie Julian from 1892 to 1895, and in 1903 he eventually settled, along with his wife Murielle Redmayne and their children, in Cornwall, England. Although he became an expatriate, Schofield was recognized an a part of the Pennsylvania Impressionist tradition. Familiar at an early age with the Bucks County region, Schofield visited often, usually from October through April, and painted rural scenes. He often visited his friend, Edward Redfield, and painted with him en plein-air, sharing a love of large canvases. A rivalry ended their friendship, however, when Schofield earned a Carnegie Institute medal for his "Center Bridge - Across the River" in 1904, a painting he put to canvas while in Cornwall. Redfield claimed the composition was initially his own concept and that Schofield stole it. It has been said that from that point on Schofield was never known to have painted in the Bucks County region again.

Schofield won many awards during his lifetime, including two gold medals from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, three awards from the National Academy of Design, and the National Arts Club among many others.

His work is in the permanent collections of some of the worlds most prestigious institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, James A. Michener Art Museum and the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute, among others.