Eva Bonnier
Swedish, 1857 - 1909
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Eva Fredrika Bonnier was a Swedish painter and philanthropist.
Born in Stockholm as a 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. 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 [sv], educator 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. She is represented with several paintings in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
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.
Bonnier suffered from frequent depressions and took her own life in 1909.
