American, 1818 - 1904
Stephen Alonzo Schoff was raised in Massachusetts. He entered into a five-year apprenticeship in engraving in Boston at age sixteen, initially with Oliver Pelton. But he then chose to work under Joseph Andrews. In 1839 or 1840 Schoff and Andrews went to Paris, where they studied briefly under Paul Delaroche. Schoff remained abroad until 1842. Upon his return to New York, he enrolled in the Academy's antique class for the 1842-43 school year and launched his lifelong career as an engraver. He worked mainly in the production of banknotes but occasionally rendered engravings of paintings for reproduction. His major effort in this field was his engraving after John Vanderlyn's Caius Marius on the Ruins of Carthage (1807, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), commissioned and issued by the Apollo Association in 1844; Durand assisted him to some degree in execution of the plate. The print was shown in the Academy annual of that year-the only work and only time Schoff contributed to an Academy exhibition.
Schoff was working in Boston in the 1850s and 1860s. Thereafter he lived and worked at various times in Washington, D.C., Vermont, Massachusetts, and eventually in Norfolk, Connecticut.
This portrait presumably was painted sometime within a year of Schoff's election to the Academy in the late spring of 1844; thus it is among the last few portraits Durand executed.
Schoff was working in Boston in the 1850s and 1860s. Thereafter he lived and worked at various times in Washington, D.C., Vermont, Massachusetts, and eventually in Norfolk, Connecticut.
This portrait presumably was painted sometime within a year of Schoff's election to the Academy in the late spring of 1844; thus it is among the last few portraits Durand executed.
