The Old Blind Woman (Fanny Brate) - Nationalmuseum - 20439

Fanny Ingeborg Matilda Brate, nee Ekbom, (1862–1940) was a Swedish painter. Fanny Brate's paintings influenced Carl Larsson, and her work is seen as the inspiration for his watercolors of idyllic family life. Biography Fanny Brate was the daughter of John Frederic Oscar Gustaf Ekbom, a clerk in the household of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. In 1880, at the age of eighteen she was accepted at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, after having graduated from Konstfack. In 1887 Fanny Brate married runologist Erik Brate (1857–1924). They had four girls, Astrid (1888–1929), Torun (1891–1993), Ragnhild (1892–1894), Ingegerd (1899–1952). After her marriage, she was forced to give up painting, but continued her involvement in the Swedish art world as a patron for other artists. Brate became a member of Svenska Konstnärernas Förening (the Swedish artists' association) in 1891.