Frank Schoonover

Born in Oxford, New Jersey, an industrial town, Frank Schoonover earned a reputation as a skilled illustrator and as a portrait, figure and landscape painter of lively western scenes. He was also a teacher from his studio and from the John Herron Art Institute.

Schoonover grew up spending his summers in the Pocono Mountains, which gave him “an affinity for wilderness scenes”. (Zellman 744)

Howard Pyle, with whom he studied at the Drexel Institute, in Wilmington and at Chadd’s Ford, was the biggest influence on Schoonover and emphasized the importance of immersing himself in the subject matter he was going to depict.