Carl G. von Iwonski,
painter, was born at Hilbersdorf, Silesia, Prussia, on April 23, 1830,
the son of Leopold and Marie (Kalinowska-Tshirski) von Iwonski. His father
was formerly a Prussian army officer. Little is known of Iwonski's childhood
before the family immigrated with the Adelsverein colonists to New Braunfels,
Texas, in 1845. As an artist he was largely self-taught; training in art
was not generally cultivated in Texas at the time. He may, however, have
received art lessons from Friedrich Richard Petri or Hermann Lungkwitz,
both Dresden-trained artists who arrived in 1851.
Iwonski established his first studio in New Braunfels in the mid-1850s. There he made pencil, ink, watercolor, and oil portraits of German settlers. His well-known panorama of New Braunfels was lithographed in Leipzig, and his lithograph of the Germania Gesangverein of New Braunfels in 1857 depicted the first German singing society in Texas. In the late 1850s the family moved to San Antonio, where Iwonski painted scenery and scenes from plays performed by the German settlers' Casino Club. He also learned photography from William DeRyee, a pioneer chemist and photographer from Bavaria. Iwonski and DeRyee were business partners for a few years.
With his friend and fellow artist Hermann Lungkwitz, Iwonski set up a photographic studio in San Antonio. There they continued their business until 1870, when Lungkwitz moved to Austin to become a photographer for the General Land Office. Although primarily a portrait photographer, Iwonski experimented with landscapes and attempted to record an eclipse of the sun with his camera. During this period he produced a sculpted bust of Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1869) and a heroic painting of the German general staff during the Franco-Prussian War (1871). During most of 1871 Iwonski also studied art at the Academy in Berlin.
Iwonski was a lifelong bachelor and returned with his mother to Germany in 1873. There he remained active in art circles in Breslau and Silesia. He died on April 4, 1912.
Bibliography: Glen E.Lich. The German Texans, 1981