Johann Nepomuk Schönberg (18442 December 1913) was an Austrian artist, war correspondent, war-artist, and illustrator who illustrated many of the wars and disasters of his time.

Early life

Both his father Adolf (1813–1868) an engraver and lithographer, and his grandfather Johan (178012 March 1863) an engraver, were well known artists. Schönberg attended the Imperial and Royal Unified Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1858 to 1860, where his father had also studied. He travelled to Munich to work under Hermann Anschütz at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

. However, he had to abandon his studies to Vienna to assist his impoverished father. Fritz L'Allemand had seen some of his smaller war paintings and asked him to assist with completing his painting of "Banquet Table of the Maria Theresa Knights at Schönbrunn Castle". Schönberg spent several months at this task, it was the L'allemand who got paid and got the credit. Schönberg was of military age and served as a soldier in the Austrian army and fought in the

Battle of Custoza (1866) The Battle of Custoza took place on the 24 June 1866 during the Third Italian War of Independence in the Italian unification process. The Austrian Imperial army, joined by the Venetian Army, jointly commanded by Archduke Albrecht of Habs ...

as part of the

Third Italian War of Independence The Third Italian War of Independence () was a war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire fought between June and August 1866. The conflict paralleled the Austro-Prussian War and resulted in Austria giving the region of Venetia (p ...

. He also served in the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War (German: ''Preußisch-Österreichischer Krieg''), also known by many other names,Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Second War of Unification, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), ''Deutsc ...

in 1866, and supplied sketches from this conflict to the ''Illustrated London News''. Before and after his bouts of military service, he was studying in Vienna and Munich. He was already producing illustrations for books and for illustrated papers. During this period also he visited the Academy in Vienna in (1865–1867) and became a member of the Vienna Artists' Society at the

Vienna Künstlerhaus The Künstlerhaus in Vienna's 1st district has accommodated the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung since 1868. It is located in the Ringstrassenzone in between Akademiestraße, Bösendorferstraße and Musikvereinsplatz. The building was erected betwee ...

. He married Pauline (born c. 1850) in c. 1873. The couple had no children. They both moved to England about the time of their marriage. In 1901, when Schönberg was in China, the census shows Pauline was staying with a cousin in Ernst Carl Fuchs at

Penge Penge () is a suburb of South East Greater London, London, England, now in the London Borough of Bromley, west of Bromley, north east of Croydon and south east of Charing Cross. Etymology The name ''Penge'' is first attested in charter of ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. By the 1911 census, the couple, now in their 60s were boarding with the Bruck brothers, Walter, a fine art publisher, and William, a process engraver, in Weylands, 21, Southend Road, Beckham. The couple never naturalised, but continued to remain resident foreign citizens.

Work

During his life, Schönberg produced a huge volume of work. His overall body of work numbers more than 2,000 drawings and paintings. His paintings were usually commissioned rather than being painted as speculative works. He almost never exhibited, and did not build up a reputation in this way. Wurzbach noted that Schönberg's sketches were well drawn, gave a faithful rendering of the scenes, and when many people were represented, the groups were cleverly distributed and the timing of the drawing chosen with a lucid eye. However, Wurzbach bemoaned that Schönberg's talent was being frittered away on illustration rather than on great works of art. One interesting commission that Schönberg received was from Prince Carol of the newly independent Romania. The Prince commissioned him to paint the key events of the

Romanian War of Independence The Romanian War of Independence () is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the phase of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), in which Romania, fighting on the Russian side of the war, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On ...

. Specifically, he was commissioned to paint a series of six oil paintings: *The Crossing of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

*The Bombardment of

Vidin Vidin (, ) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin (since ...

, also called ''This is the music I like!'' after the Prince's words when a shell burst near him on a battery in Calafat *The Assault on the Grivitza Redoubt *The Ruling Prince visiting the Grivitza Redoubt *Prince Carol at the Battle of Plevna *The first Encounter between Prince Carol I and Osman Nuri Pasha after the Surrender The paintings were based on Schönberg's own witnessing of these events, and were based on his own sketches and drawings made during the campaign. He worked hard to ensure that all those represented were accurately drawn. It was a long drawn out process as he first had to produce watercolour sketches and mid-sized oil paintings to get approval for the large-scale oil-paintings. The whole project took 25 years to complete. Bénézit shows only one auction result for Schönberg: ''Sailing Ships at Sea'' (1912, oil on canvas 53.5x37 cm) was sold for 15,000 ATS in Vienna on 19 June 1979.

Press illustrations

Schönberg provided illustrations for many publications, starting in his native Austria and then moving further afield to Germany, France, and England. Among the papers he illustrated for were: *'' Über Land und Meer'' (Stuttgart) This was a Hallberger publication like ''Illustrirte Welt'', but they did not publish the same material. *''

Illustrirte Zeitung ''Illustrirte Zeitung''The word "Illustrirt" is written in contemporary German mandatorily as "Illustriert" with an additional "e", leading to the fact that today's German-speaking readers may be irritated by the title of the historical magazine ...

'' (Leipzig) *' *' *'' Le Monde Illustré'' *''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'', founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less freq ...

'' Schönberg first works for the paper in 1866. He was appointed as their Special Artist in Romania in 1877 during the

. He remained on the staff of the newspaper for the next 22 years, until he went to Pretoria for ''The Sphere'' in 1899. He returned to the ''Illustrated London News'' after returning from Pretoria. *'' The Sphere'' Schönberg not only did his own drawings, but he also worked up the drawings sent in by other artists. For the illustrated weeklies, the illustrations were a two-stage process – the first with the production of the drawing, and then the engraving of the plates to reproduce them. Thus Schönberg worked on Melton Prior's drawings of the Zulu War in 1879. Houfe states that his illustration style was characterised by the heavy use of body-colour with grey washes.

War illustrations

Examples of illustrations from war zones

The following illustrations were drawn or painted by Schönberg during different military campaigns. They all show examples of military medicine as the illustrations are by courtesy of the

Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, England, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the W ...

. File:Sick and wounded soldiers at Ak Palanka by JN Schonberg - Courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.jpg, Sick and wounded soldiers at Ak Palanka during the

Serbo-Bulgarian War The Serbo-Bulgarian War or the Serbian–Bulgarian War (, ''Srăbsko-bălgarska voyna'', , ''Srpsko-bugarski rat''), a war between the Kingdom of Serbia and the Principality of Bulgaria, erupted on and lasted until . Despite Bulgaria's statu ...

of 1885 File:The Quarantine House at Port Said by JN Schonberg - Courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.jpg, The Quarantine House for Egyptian soldiers suffering from the plague at Port Said during the

British Conquest of Egypt (1882) The British conquest of Egypt, also known as the Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It es ...

File:Arrival of wounded at Belgrade by JN Schonberg - Courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.jpg, Arrival of wounded from Slivnitza at Belgrade Railway station during the

of 1885 File:Pyongyang, Korea; wounded Chinese prisoners of war Wellcome L0046074.jpg, Wounded Chinese prisoners getting medical treatment at Pyongyang, Korea, during the first

Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as the Jiawu ...

Schönberg was a correspondent as well as an artist and sent reports and conducted interviews, in addition to sending sketches of the action or of the aftermath of war. Among the conflicts and disasters he covered were: *The

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

(12 April 18619 May 1865). Schönberg told a Canadian reporter in a 1901 interview, while he was on his way back from the Boxer Rebellion via Vancouver, that his first experience in the field was in 1863 when he drew military illustrations of the Civil War. *The

(20 June 186612 August 1866). Schönberg was a soldier in the Austrian ranks for this war, but also did some illustration. *The

(14 June22 July 1866). This was the first work he did for the ''

''. He was also in the ranks of the Austrian Army for this conflict. *The

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

(19 July 187028 January 1871). He later contributed to a book on the campaign. *The Prusso-Austrian War (14 June22 July 1855) where he produced drawings for the ''Illustrated London News'', his first work for that paper. * The Serbo-Turkish War (30 June 187628 February 1877). This was the first of two wars that established Serbia as an independent state. In the lull between the two wars, Schönberg covered the tension in Bulgaria as the Special Artist for the ''Illustrated London News''. *

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

otherwise known as the Romanian War of Independence (24 April 18773 March 1878). Schönberg covered this war in the interlude between the two Serbian wars as the Special Artist for the ''Illustrated London News''. As a result of his work on this war, Prince Carol I of Romania asked him to paint six large canvases inspired by the war with the topics selected by the Prince. The first painting was ready in 1891 and it was 1903 before the sixth was handed over. * The Russo-Turkish War (13 December 18775 February 1878). This was effectively a continuation of the (1876–1877) conflict. *The flooding of Szegedin,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1879, a disaster which destroyed over 90% of the houses. *The

Egyptian campaign of July–September 1882. *The

(14–28 November 1885) *The

cholera epidemic Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. The seventh cholera pandemic is officially a current pandemic and has been ongoing since 1961, according to a World Health Organi ...

in Hamburg in 1892 when over 8,000 died. *The

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

(25 July 189417 April 1895) *The

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

(11 October 189931 May 1902). *The

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

or Yihetuan Movement (2 November 18997 September 1901).

Book illustrations

In addition to his illustrations for non-fiction works such as Alexander Patuzzi's ''History of the Popes'', and Ludwig von Alvensleben's ''General History of the World'', Schönberg illustrated books for a wide range of authors, mainly for children's fiction. Among the authors whose work he illustrated were: * Elbridge S. Brooks, a prolific author who wrote both serialised fiction, novels, and non-fiction for children * Harry Collingwood, a writer of boys' adventure fiction, usually in a nautical setting * Edward S. Ellis, a prolific American author of adventure fiction * George Manville Fenn, who wrote mainly for young adults * Henry Frith, a prolific Irish author and the English translator for many of Jules Verne's novels * John Percy Groves, a soldier who wrote stirring stories for boys * G. A. Henty, a prolific writer of boy's adventure fiction, often set in a historical context * Georgina Norway, who wrote adventure fiction for children as "G. Norway"

Examples of book illustration

Given his Austrian roots, Schönberg was probably a good choice for the illustration of ''The Lion of the North: a tale of the times of Gustavus Adolphus and the wars of religion'' by G. A. Henty. Schönberg did twelve full-page illustrations as line-and-wash drawings reproduced by black line and sepia tint plates. Newbolt notes that Schönberg's work was limited by the quality of available processes and sometimes by the printer's choice of cheap paper. File:01 Colonel Munro seeks to enlist Nigel Graeme and his nephew-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Colonel Munro seeks to enlist Nigel Graeme and his nephew File:02 Malcolm's courage and humanity at the battle of Schiefelbrune-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Malcolm's courage and humanity at the battle of Schiefelbrune File:03 Colonel Munro presents Malcolm to the King-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Colonel Munro presents Malcolm to the King File:04 Malcolm counsels the townspeople of Mansfield to resistance-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Malcolm counsels the townspeople of Mansfield to resistance File:05 Malcolm and Grent cross the Rhine at midnight-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Malcolm and Grent cross the Rhine at midnight File:06 Malcolm fired at one of the natives and then with a loud shout dashed forward-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Malcolm fired at one of the natives and then with a loud shout dashed forward File:07 The last of the siege of the church-tower-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, The last of the siege of the church-tower File:08 Death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lutzen-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lutzen File:09 Malcolm receives Lady Hilda's appeal for help-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Malcolm receives Lady Hilda's appeal for help File:10 A plan proposed for Thekla's safety-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, A plan proposed for Thekla's safety File:11 Malcolm overpowered by treachery at the banquet-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Malcolm overpowered by treachery at the banquet File:12 Thekla advanced and laid her hand in Malcolm's-Illust by Johan Schonberg for Lion of the North by G A Henty.jpg, Thekla advanced and laid her hand in Malcolm's Schönberg illustrated another Henty tale of trouble on the continent. This time it was ''In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy'', (1888), London, Blackie, a story about the French Revolution. Schönberg did eight full-page wash-drawings which were reproduced by halftone blocks printed in black on coated paper. The halftone blocks were fine-screen, almost the first time such blocks were used in the UK. A lot of handwork and ''deep-etching'' was done on the blocks to accentuate highlight and avoid a flat result. Newbolt further notes that examination with a glass shows that Blackie had printing problems with these very fine screens, which tended to get clogged by dust and ink, as Blackie had begun with screens which were too fine for the quality of paper they were using. File:01 Harry saves the girls from the mad dog-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, Harry saves the girls from the mad dog File:02 The Marquis returns to his family-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, The Marquis returns to his family File:03 The wreck of the Marquis's mansion-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, The wreck of the Marquis's mansion File:04 Victor de Gisons struck down by a friendly blow-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, Victor de Gisons struck down by a friendly blow File:05 Robespierre saved from the assassins-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, Robespierre saved from the assassins File:06 Citizen Lebat takes Marie out of Prison-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, Citizen Lebat takes Marie out of prison File:07 The journey to Nantes-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, The journey to Nantes File:08 Jeanne and Virginie rescued from the massacre-Illust by Johan Schonberg for In the Reign of Terror by G A Henty.jpg, Jeanne and Virginie are rescued from the massacre

Death

Schönberg died on 2 December 1913 in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He was still living at Weylands, 21 Southend Road Beckham when he died. He was buried in Lambeth North Cemetery on 6 December. His widow Pauline administered his estate, which amounted to only £48 10s.

Notes

References

External links

Paintings by Schonberg
in public collections in the UK (ArtUK). *
Books illustrated by Schönberg
at the

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

.
illustrations by Schönberg
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonberg, Johann 1840s births 1913 deaths Illustrators from Austria-Hungary 19th-century Austrian illustrators 20th-century Austrian illustrators 19th-century Austrian painters 20th-century Austrian painters Austrian male artists Austrian children's book illustrators Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni Austrian war artists Austrian magazine illustrators