Eva Bonnier

{{short description|Swedish painter and philanthropist (1857–1909)}}

File:Eva Fredrika Bonnier - from Svenskt Porträttgalleri XX.png

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

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Biography

Born in Stockholm as the daughter of publisher Albert Bonnier and a member of a leading family of publishers, 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.{{cite web |last1=Gynning |first1=Margareta |title=Eva Fredrika Bonnier |url=https://skbl.se/en/article/EvaBonnier |website=Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon |access-date=4 August 2018}} 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 {{ill|Moritz Rubenson|sv}}, educator {{ill|Carl Meijerberg|sv}} and poet and scholar Oscar Levertin. Bonnier exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.{{cite web |last1=Nichols |first1=K. L. |title=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893| url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt10e.html#bonnier| access-date=4 August 2018}} She is represented with several paintings in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.

File:Evabonnierphotoca1905.jpg

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.{{cite web |title=Sisters in Light: Hanna Hirsch-Pauli and Eva Bonnier |url=https://eclecticlight.co/2017/09/28/sisters-in-light-hanna-hirsch-pauli-and-eva-bonnier/ |website=Eclecticlight |access-date=4 August 2018}}

Bonnier was a member of the women's association Nya Idun.{{Cite web |date=2014-10-21 |title=Eva Bonnier |url=http://nyaidun.se/eva-bonnier/ |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=nyaidun.se |language=sv-SE}}

Bonnier suffered from frequent depressions and took her own life in Copenhagen in 1909, aged 51.

Selected works

File:Eva Bonnier Självporträtt 1886.jpg|1886 (Self portrait, Bonnier family portrait collection, Stockholm)

File:Interior of a Studio in Paris (Eva Bonnier) - Nationalmuseum - 20563.tif|1886 (Interior of a Studio in Paris, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm)

File:Magdalena by Eva Bonnier.jpg|1887 (Magdalena, Waldemarsudde)

File:Reflection in Blue (Eva Bonnier) - Nationalmuseum - 18706.tif|1887 (Reflection in Blue, Nationalmuseum)

File:Eva Bonnier Couturières 1887.jpg|1887 (Dressmakers)

File:Eva Bonnier 4.jpg|1890 (The House Keeper, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm)

File:Eva_Bonnier_3.jpg|1890 (Convalescent, Lisen Bonnier)

File:JuliaHasselberg by EvaBonnier 1906.jpg|ca 1906 (Julia Hasselberg, Blekinge museum)

References

Gynning, Margareta: Det ambivalenta perspektivet: Eva Bonnier och Hanna Hirsch-Pauli i 1880-talets konstliv, Stockholm, Bonnier, (diss. Uppsala University), 1999.
Hedberg, Tor: "Bonnier, Eva Fredrika", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, 5, pp. 436–438.