Elisabeth Koning

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Dutch still life painter, nicknamed Betsie, whose Indonesian botanical work is often seen as her most important legacy, even though her flower paintings were awarded prizes and purchased by public collections in her lifetime. Koning was a pupil of Henriette Ronner-Knip. She was something of a child prodigy and at age 9 was honoured by having her animal drawings on show at the 1825 Tentoonstelling Nationale Nijverheid (National Industrial show) in Haarlem. In 1844 she was made honorary member of Kunst zij ons doel and a year later she was named member of the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 1859 she married the ship captain Sybrand Stapert and accompanied him on a trip to Indonesia, and her drawings of sea life from this trip granted her an honorary membership in the Naturalist's club of Indonesia, but the couple returned to the Netherlands later the same year and settled in Groningen. After her marriage she signed works "EJS geb. K" (short for Elisabeth Johanna Stapert, born Koning). Koning died in Rotterdam on 25 June 1887, aged 71. Since she was active in international shows from an early age and married late in life, she is better known under her maiden name. Link to Wikipedia biography