.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Although relatively little is known about German-born artist Anton Schonborn, his exquisitely detailed watercolors from the 1860s were critical early documents in Western American exploration. "He made his first known trip to the Rocky Mountain region in 1859 as a member of Captain William Franklin Raynolds's expeditionary party, whose mission was to explore Yellowstone River and the headwaters of the Missouri River...The journey of 1859, the last major western expedition performed by the Corps of Topographical Engineers, departed from Saint Louis on May 28, 1859, proceeding overland from Fort Pierre, South Dakota, on a general reconnaissance to ascertain 'everything related to the numbers, habits, and disposition of the Indians...its agricultural and mineralogical resources, its climate and the influences that govern it, the navigability of its streams, its topographical features, and the facilities or obstacles which the latter presented to the construction of rail or common roads.'" (as quoted in P. Trenton and P.H. Hassrick, The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century, Norman, Oklahoma, 1983, pp. 107, 110)
"There is little information on Schonborn's whereabouts until the summer of 1871, when he joined [Dr. F.V.] Hayden on an exploration of Yellowstone Park. One historian suggests that he 'traveled along the Bozeman Trail between November, 1867, and June 1868,' evidenced by a small group of pen-and-ink drawings he made of Wyoming forts along this trail in 1867. He further notes that Schonborn 'reportedly was stationed at Fort C.F. Smith, in Montana' during 1868 but gives no evidence for this statement. A set of eleven, small finished watercolor drawings by Schonborn depicting frontier outposts in the Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado Territories, and Nebraska was commissioned by Brevet Brigadier General Alexander James Perry, of the Quartermaster Department, in 1870, [Collection of the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas] indicating that the artist might have been attached to that department during the late 1860s. The position would have required him to travel to various forts to deliver supplies, giving him an opportunity to sketch them." (The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century, p. 110)
These four watercolors have remained in the family of the artist until present time and provide further critical documentation of Schonborn's travels in the 1860s. Whether strictly defined as a cartographer or surveyor, Schonborn's remarkably detailed renderings of the West underscore his artistic merit and invaluable contributions to the pictorial history of American expansion during his short-lived career.
"There is little information on Schonborn's whereabouts until the summer of 1871, when he joined [Dr. F.V.] Hayden on an exploration of Yellowstone Park. One historian suggests that he 'traveled along the Bozeman Trail between November, 1867, and June 1868,' evidenced by a small group of pen-and-ink drawings he made of Wyoming forts along this trail in 1867. He further notes that Schonborn 'reportedly was stationed at Fort C.F. Smith, in Montana' during 1868 but gives no evidence for this statement. A set of eleven, small finished watercolor drawings by Schonborn depicting frontier outposts in the Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado Territories, and Nebraska was commissioned by Brevet Brigadier General Alexander James Perry, of the Quartermaster Department, in 1870, [Collection of the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas] indicating that the artist might have been attached to that department during the late 1860s. The position would have required him to travel to various forts to deliver supplies, giving him an opportunity to sketch them." (The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century, p. 110)
These four watercolors have remained in the family of the artist until present time and provide further critical documentation of Schonborn's travels in the 1860s. Whether strictly defined as a cartographer or surveyor, Schonborn's remarkably detailed renderings of the West underscore his artistic merit and invaluable contributions to the pictorial history of American expansion during his short-lived career.