Anna Maria Bonz

1904 still life

Anna Maria Bonz (* 1866 in Böblingen ; † 1938 in Böblingen) was a painter from Württemberg and was one of the first women to express the independence of women through painting.

biography

Bonz was the daughter of the chemist Ernst Gottlieb Theodor Bonz (1832–1898) and his wife Marie Pauline Schumann (1835–1888). She grew up in Böblingen in a respected, strictly religious, old Pietist family of chemists. Your mother recognized her artistic talent early on, but it was not encouraged in the patriarchal structure of the family. She passed her Matura with distinction, spoke Latin, English and fluent French. Her wish was to study at the Royal Academy in Stuttgart, but it could not be fulfilled for the family reasons mentioned. However, a chance encounter with Anna Peters (1843–1926) gave her the opportunity to take private lessons from her father, Pieter Francis Peters . She learned landscape painting from him ( en plein air ) and was part of his entourage on trips to Lake Geneva, Lake Constance and the Swabian Alb.

Especially the friendship with Anna Peters influenced her development as a painter. From 1886 to 1890 she interned at the academy in Stuttgart as an external student. She joined the "Württembergische Malerinnen-Verein", founded in Stuttgart in 1893, in 1895 and was a member until 1931. In private lessons with Kappis and later Hölzel , she developed into a painter who was well known and in demand in Stuttgart and the surrounding area. As the companion of her brother Carl Otto Bonz (1857–1931) on business trips to Munich , Berlin , London , Paris and St. Petersburg, she was able to establish contact with the respective local art scene. Her studio was in Pfarrgasse in Böblingen and was occasionally the meeting place for painters from her association.

Social Commitment

Bonz, who remained unmarried, used the proceeds from the sale of her works, which in individual cases were traded for up to 200 marks, exclusively for charitable purposes. She did not join a gallery. She taught women and children in Böblingen free of charge in the technique of painting and drawing.

For those in need, she set up a weekly board next to her studio. Her cautious public commitment to women's rights in accordance with her Stuttgart painters and her contacts in Munich and Berlin, however, brought her little recognition in the provincial Böblingen.

plant

Anna Maria Bonz's work includes oil paintings, watercolors and drawings, mainly landscape and flower paintings. The flower still lifes correspond to your impressionistic point of view. Landscape painting was initially heavily influenced by Pieter Francis Peters, but took on expressionist forms of expression in her later works. Her drawings, on the other hand, are exact representations of motifs from numerous cities in her native Württemberg. Participation in exhibitions was limited to Stuttgart and the surrounding area. In addition to the municipal archive of the city of Böblingen, the majority of your pictures are in private ownership or private collections. Solo exhibitions: Atelierhaus - WMV Gallery: 1909, 1911 and 1913.

literature

• Edith Neumann: Artists in Württemberg. On the history of the Württemberg painters . Klett - Cotta Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-608-94192-4 .
• Erich Kläger: Böblingen, history in shapes . Ameles Verlag, 2003, pp .: 269 - 272
• Städtische Galerie Böblingen: The class of women - artists conquer the modern age . Catalog: pp. 29, 54, 55, 91, 127, exhibition 2015
• Wolfgang Bonz: Homage to an Extraordinary Woman , 2013
• Directory of members: Archive, Association of Female Artists of Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart