Painter, printmaker, sculptor, and teacher, Jean Frances Schonwalter (née Englander) was born to Kathryn and Joseph Englander on 22 April 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studied at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia on scholarship and received her B.F.A. Englander continued her education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on a graduate fellowship. She was married to Edwin Schonwalter in 1942 and thence Jean Schonwalter became her professional name. Aside from creating works of art in various media, she taught at the Newark School of Fine Arts and Bryn Mawr College. 

Schonwalter was a member of and exhibited with the Artists Equity Association of New Jersey, the Society of American Graphic Artists, the New Jersey Artists Association, and the National Association of Women Artists. Due to these affiliations, Schonwalter’s work was exhibited at the Library of Congress, the New Jersey State Museum, the New Jersey Visual Arts Center, the Boston Museum, and the Butler Institute of Art. She won the Pennypacker Prize for Graphics from the Society of American Graphic Artist in 1966, a purchase prize from the New Jersey State Museum in 1967, and first prize and medal of honor for graphic art from the National Association of Women Artists in 1971.

The work of Jean Schonwalter is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Art Museum, New York; the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; the New York Public Library; the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; the Slater Museum, Norwich, Connecticut; and the National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

Jean Frances Schonwalter died in West Orange, New Jersey on June 13, 1998.