Biographical Note
Jacob B. Schoener was born in 1805 in Reading, Pennsylvania. An itinerant portraitist and miniaturist, Schoener studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelpha, Pennsylvania, under Italian artist Gennarino Persico. Schoener practiced in New York City, New York; Albany, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; and finally, Boston, Massachusetts; where he lived for much of the 1830s. Schoener also travelled to Florida and Cuba for work and wintered in Charleston, South Carolina, among other southern cities. He died by suicide in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1846.
Jacob B. Schoener’s father, William Schöner (William B. Schoener Jr.), was a local politician in Reading, Pennsylvania. He also worked as a scrivener for local lawyers and officials and acted as a legal signatory on many local deeds, wills, and indentures. William B. Schoener Jr. married Catherine Boyer, and they had seven children: Jacob, John, Elizabeth, William B., Louisa, Mary, and Franklin.