The son of Dutch parents, Theo Schoon was born in Indonesia and came to live and work in New Zealand in 1939, aged 24. He drew on Indonesian art influences throughout his long career, and he became one of the first European artists in New Zealand to use customary Māori patterns and motifs in their work. Schoon's characteristic blend of European modernism with inspiration from Māori art had a major impact on New Zealand art in the mid-twentieth century. From the mid 1940s Schoon studied the early Maori rock drawings in Canterbury caves and was employed by the Department of Internal Affairs to record the drawings from 1945 to 1948. On several of his trips to these caves he was accompanied by friend John Money, who was later to become a major patron of both Schoon and Angus.