Eva Bonnier

Eva Bonnier, Self-portrait, 1886 (Bonnier portrait collection, Nedre Manilla, Djurgården, Stockholm).

Eva Fredrika Bonnier (Stockholm 17 November 1857 – Copenhagen 13 January 1909) was a Swedish painter and philanthropist.

Biography

Born in Stockholm as a daughter of publisher Albert Bonnier and a member of a leading family of publishers, Eva Bonnier studied painting with August Malmström and became a student in the women's section of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm in 1878. Together with her friend and co-student Hanna Hirsch, she traveled to Paris in 1883, staying there until 1889. Her painting "Music" (1889) was awarded a mention honorable at the Paris Salon. After her return to Sweden in 1889, she was active as a painter until about 1900, mostly of portraits, such as those of Lisen Bonnier (her sister-in-law) as convalescent, industrialist Hjalmar Lundbohm, politician Moritz Rubenson, educator Carl Jonas Meijerberg and poet and scholar Oscar Levertin. She is represented with several paintings in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

Eva Bonnier, 1905

After about 1900 Bonnier fell silent as an artist and devoted herself to her philanthropic work, enabled through her inherited wealth. She established a foundation for the beautification of Stockholm, which in its first years financed paintings and sculptures for public places and institutions, such as the Royal Library, Stockholm University, and several Stockholm schools. The foundation remains active.

Eva Bonnier suffered from frequent depressions and took her own life in 1909.

Selected works

References

Media related to Eva Bonnier at Wikimedia Commons

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