Background
Schoonjans was born in Antwerp and became a pupil of Erasmus Quellinus II and his son January-Erasmus Quellinus.
Schoonjans was born in Antwerp and became a pupil of Erasmus Quellinus II and his son January-Erasmus Quellinus.
He travelled to Rome and like his teachers had done before him, joined the Bentvueghels with the nickname "Parrhasius" in 1674. In Rome he lived with Carel de Vogelaer in the Via Margutta and later he lived from 1688-1689 in the Corso, near the Via di Ripetta. In 1695 he became court painter in Vienna, where he later died.
During the course of his lengthy career he also worked in Antwerp, Riems, Lyon, Amsterdam, the Hague, Brno, Düsseldorf, Copenhagen, and Berlin.
Bentvueghels.