Elin Danielson-Gambogi

Who was Elin Danielson-Gambogi?

Elin Kleopatra Danielson-Gambogi was a Finnish painter. She is 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, so called painter sisters' generation. The group also included artists like Helene Schjerfbeck.

Elin Danielson-Gambogi was born in the small village of Noormarkku, near the city of Pori in Western Finland. At the age of 15 she moved to Helsinki and started studying in the Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1883 Danielson-Gambogi left to Paris. She took lessons at Académie Colarossi and painted in Brittany during the summertime. Few years later Danielson-Gambogi came back to Finland and lived with his relatives in Noormarkku and Pori. In 1888 she opened an atelier in Noormarkku. During the 1880s and 1890s Danielson-Gambogi also worked as teacher in several art schools around Finland.

In 1895 she received a scholarship and traveled to Florence Italy. A year later Danielson-Gambogi moved to the village of Antignano and got married with an Italian painter Raffaello Gambogi. They had exhibitions in Paris, Florence and Milan and in many Finnish cities. The couple also had their paintings in world's fair 1900 in Paris.