Elin Danielson-Gambogi

Elin Kleopatra Danielson-Gambogi (; 3 September 1861 – 31 December 1919) was a Finnish painter, best known for her realist works and portraits. Danielson-Gambogi was part of the first generation of Finnish women artists who received professional education in art, the so-called "painter sisters' generation". The group also included Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946), Helena Westermarck (1857-1938), and Maria Wiik (1853-1928).

Biography Early life and studies Elin Danielson was born in the small village of Noormarkku, near the city of Pori in Western Finland. She was the first-born child of Karl Danielson and Rosa Amalia Danielson, who both came from families of officers and officials, a middle-class background. Her early years were spent on a family farm, Ala-Sihtola in Ilmajoki.

Paris In 1883 Danielson received a grant and moved to Paris. While there, she took lessons at the Académie Colarossi under Gustave Courtois and painted in Brittany during the summertime. A few years later she returned to Finland and lived with her relatives in Noormarkku and Pori. In 1888 she opened an atelier in Noormarkku. During the 1880s and 1890s she worked as a teacher in several art schools around Finland. She also attended the artists' colony Önningeby in Ålands. Artists at Önningeby in 1886. At the front, from left: Hanna Rönnberg, Hilma Westerholm, Elin Danielson and Nina Ahlstedt. Behind them, sitting in the chair, Fredrik Ahlstedt, and standing by him Victor Westerholm. Sitting on the ground at the back, Alex Federley, and standing behind him J. A. G. Acke.

Italy In 1895, she received a scholarship and traveled to Florence, Italy. A year later she moved to the village of Antignano in Livorno where she met an Italian painter 13 years younger than herself, Raffaello Gambogi (1874–1943). They began working together and got married on February 27, 1898. In 1899, King Umberto purchased a painting from her. Because of World War I, her connection to her homeland was cut, and by the time she died, of pneumonia, at Antignano in 1919, she had been mostly forgotten in Finland.

Legacy Because of her choice of rare subject matters that often even caused some offence, Danielson is now seen as one of the central artists of the Golden Age of Finnish Art.

Works