As a painter, Schill was known at the end of the 19th century, alongside
Adolf Seel, above all for watercolours depicting "architectural pieces", particularly rendering architectural impressions from Italy. In the field of arts and crafts, he created illustrations as well as so-called ornamental pieces and
vignettes as book decorations from the 1870s onwards. After a study trip to Belgium in 1870, he published the travel sketches he made there with architectural motifs. In 1891, Schill was called in to design the Peace Hall in the
Osnabrück Town Hall. As an architect, Schill accepted various private commissions. A special opportunity for him to realise his architectural ideas came at the end of the 19th century when he was commissioned by the banker and city councillor
Moritz Leiffmann (1853–1921) for the construction of the upper-class
Villa Leiffmann in the Düsseldorf district of
Golzheim. Schill designed an
eclectici building with a [double-tower façade that was reminiscent of a villa of Italian
Renaissance. In Düsseldorf, the painter
Georg Oeder also consulted him for the interior decoration of his Wohnhaus am Hofgarten. Until the 1890s, Schill – together with
Peter Janssen – developed the decorative furnishings for the assembly hall of the
New Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf, which was completed in 1879. The widely acclaimed Gesamtkunstwerk was shown to interested strangers for a fee in the late 1890s. In the course of his "academy reform" around 1930, academy director had the historical furnishings of the auditorium removed except for Janssen's paintings and had the walls decorated in gold, a measure criticised by
Paul Clemen in 1944 as unjustified. Another collaboration between Schill and Janssen resulted in gravestones in Kleve, Dortmund and Düsseldorf. He also designed the silver table ornaments presented by the Prussian
Rhine Province and the
Province of Westphalia to the German Crown Prince and Crown Princess for their
Wedding in 1881. In 1894,
maiolica stoves were created in Meissen for the King's Room and the Great Hall of the Society according to designs by Schill. In the years 1896 to 1898 Schill designed the
historistic Portal architecture of the
Oberkasseler Brücke. The historicist bridge railing designed by Schill was part of the first Oberkassel Bridge built shortly before the turn of the century, which was blown up by retreating German troops in March 1945. After the makeshift bridge was dismantled in 1973, parts of the ornately forged bridge railing were reused as parapets on Poststraße () and on Haroldstraße (
Schwanenspiegel,
Parkanlage am Ständehaus). Around 1900, Schill created the pinmosaics on the outer facade of the upper floors of the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts. From 1901 to 1902 Schill, together with
Josef Kleesattel held the overall architectural direction of the
Industrie- und Gewerbeausstellung Düsseldorf, after the first artistic director had died unexpectedly in February 1901. Together with Kleesattel, he also completed the design and construction work for its main industrial hall, in the design of which Kaiser
Wilhelm II had personally intervened. He also designed, together with Kleesattel, the pavilion of the
Rheinische Metallwaren- und Maschinenfabrik, built on a footprint of 30 metres by 40 metres, which also stood on the main avenue of the exhibition. Until 1904 he was head of the building department of the International Art Exhibition and Great Horticultural Exhibition in Düsseldorf. Between 1896 and 1908, Schill – together with the provincial conservator
Paul Clemen, the academy professors
Eduard von Gebhardt and Peter Janssen the Ä. as well as other artists - supported the painting of the Knights' Hall of
Schloss Burg an der Wupper. With his collaborator Johannes Osten, he created a
family tree of the Bergian rulers in Gothic ornamentation. == Students ==