Lot 26: The Witchita Mountains. View Northward from the Lower Valley of Cache Creek; The Witchita Mountains. Central Portion of Range from the Limestone Hills near Walnut Spring; The Witchita Mountains. Between Lat. 34 30' and 35 North, Long. 99 and 100

Anton Schonborn (1829-1871)
The Witchita Mountains. View Northward from the Lower Valley of Cache Creek; The Witchita Mountains. Central Portion of Range from the Limestone Hills near Walnut Spring; The Witchita Mountains. Between Lat. 34 30' and 35 North, Long. 99 and 100 West of Gr.ch. Mount Beauregard from Medicine Bluff; The Witchita Mountains. East-End of Range from Walnut-Spring: A Group of Four Works
the first, signed and dated 'Anton Schonborn. 1863.' (lower right on the paperboard) and inscribed with title (lower center on the paperboard); the second, signed and dated 'Anton Schonborn. 1863.' (lower right on the paperboard) and inscribed with title (lower center on the paperboard); the third, signed and dated 'A. Schonborn. 1863.' (lower left) and inscribed with title (lower center on the paperboard)--signed again and dated 'Anton Schonborn. 1863.' (lower right on the paperboard); the fourth, signed and dated 'Anton Schonborn 1863.' (lower right on the paperboard) and inscribed with title (lower center on the paperboard)
each, watercolor and pencil on paper laid down on paperboard
each, 6½ x 11 in. (16.5 x 27.9 cm.) (image size), 9¼ x 14½ (23.5 x 36.8 cm.) (sheet size) (4)

The artist.
Henry F. Schonborn, brother of the artist, Washington, D.C.
Mildred S. Reinhardt, daughter of the above, Santa Barbara, California.
By descent to the present owner.

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.