Mary Bonner (1887-1935), "La Lavandiera", 1924, ed. 4/26, etching, image size: 5 x 7", frame: 14 x 15.25"

Provenance: An Olmos Park, Texas collection

Known for her etchings of Texas cowboys and the only noted early 20th-century woman popularizing Texas subjects, Mary Bonner lived most of her life in San Antonio with long periods of time in Paris, France. She began her formal art training at age sixteen, and her first teacher was Robert Onderdonk. She went to New York in 1922, and that summer went to France and became a student of Edouard-Henri Leon, one of France's renowned engravers. By 1925, she was exhibiting with the foremost French etchers in two salons of the Society of French Artists. She remained active in San Antonio, and she and Leon had an exhibition there in 1927. Bonner was active in the San Antonio Art League and maintained studios there and in Paris, France.