Jacob Boyer Schoener was born in Reading, PA in 1805, the eldest child of William and Catherine (née Boyer) Schoener. By the age of six, he had already begun to develop his artistic talent. When he was ten years old, the Berks County Almshouse was completed. To celebrate, a banquet was given and Jacob was privately requested to draw caricatures of the numerous guests, which he did to the amusement and entertainment of all.
He received his first drawing lessons from Constantine Kessler, and was a student under Gennaro (Genorino) Persico, an Italian artist who arrived in Philadelphia in 1820 and was skilled in crayon drawing. Gennaro's brother Luigi was a sculptor who became famous for his bust of Lafayette in 1825 and works for the U.S. Capitol.
Through Gennaro's influence, Jacob was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Miniature portrait painting became his forte. In 1827-28, he also attended a course of lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. He exhibited some miniatures at the Pennsylvania Academy and traveled to various nearby cities, including Reading, Allentown, and several cities in New York state, to obtain commissions.
From 1832 to 1836, Jacob worked successfully in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. While in Boston, he was kept so busy that in a letter written to his father in 1835, he wrote, "I really am more busy now than I have ever been and I am literally wearing out both my eyes and my understanding - for such a harvest I may not have again." However, for some unknown reason, he returned to Reading "to settle for life," and maintained a studio there as a portrait and miniature painter until 1841.
Health issues prompted him to visit Cuba to execute a few commissions. He departed from New York City on Christmas Day, 1841 aboard the R.W. Brown. Jacob had paid thirty-five dollars in gold to William Wyllis Pratt, the charterer of the vessel, for passage to Key West. During the journey, he kept a diary, detailing his observations in English and German on the weather and the flora and fauna. They were also accompanied by numerous sketches. He was back in New York by 11 May 1842 and then he returned to Reading.
On 3 December 1842, Jacob recorded in his journal that he had "Entered upon the duties as clerk for my father in the office of Clerk of Orphan's Court at a salary of $200.00 a year." He did very little serious work.
In June 1846, another period of ill health forced him to give up his confining work and embark on a "visiting journey northward" in an expectation of improving his health. After spending a short time in New York, he arrived in Boston and took up residence at the American House.
For several days he had been laboring under a very distressing complaint, which kept him in a state of high nervous excitement. In consequence, his mind became unsettled and on Monday, 20 July, his conversation indicated that his imagination was haunted with some strange hallucinations in relation to his affairs and prospects. He made continual complaint of the climate and spoke of being in a low state of health.
The next morning, he was found by Mr. Rice, one of the landlords of the American, when he broke open the door of Jacob's room and found him lying partially under the bed, with his throat badly cut by a razor, and the razor lying by the side of the body. The appearance was that Jacob had not been to bed, being nearly in full dress, and and also that he had been standing when he inflicted the blows, and that he had then fallen and worked himself under the bed. The door had been bolted. A gold watch, papers, miniature, $60 in bills, as well as other belongings, were found in his room. An inquest on the body was held and the verdict was that the fatal act was committed while the deceased was laboring under partial insanity.
At 6 o'clock on 21 July 1846, funeral services were held at the American House. The body, followed by numerous friends, was then conveyed to Copp's Hill burying ground, and deposited in a tomb, to await the directions of his family in Reading.
Jacob was eventually returned to Reading and interred with his family at Charles Evans Cemetery.
Jacob was undoubtedly one of the earliest and most talented of Reading artists. How a career so brilliantly started came to such a tragic and untimely end is a mystery that may never be solved. The nature of Jacob's ill health had never been clearly explained or identified, unless it was due in part to excessive eye strain occasioned by his work. In one of his letters to his father, there was an intimation that an unhappy love affair may have been the motivation for his decision to return to Reading in 1836. There is also the possibility that his brother William's scheme to raise silk worms may have had something to do with it.
The existing letters between Jacob and his father bear witness to the fine and touching relationship that existed between them and reveal Jacob to be a sensitive and unusually gifted person.
Jacob was not only a successful artist, but he was well versed in the ancient, and German, French, Spanish and Italian languages and was quite conversant with the principles of general and civil law. He was also an admirable performer on the piano and guitar, and the charm of every social circle of which he became a member. His mind was brilliant; his spirit independent; his temperament ardent and impulsive, and his disposition generous and affectionate in the highest degree. Wherever he traveled, he always had a large circle of devoted friends and acquaintances who appreciated his high talents and noble traits of character.
At the height of his abilities, Jacob's miniatures were considered to possess a remarkable freshness and vitality and executed with a breadth and freedom of treatment that was most unusual among miniaturists.
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