Adela Ber (30 December 1888 – 28 October 1966) was the first female artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina to be educated at an art school and a pioneer of women's rights in her country. Her works includes portraits and

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

paintings of Bosnian landscapes.

Early life

Ber was born in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1888. Her mother hailed from Livno.

Education

After completing a higher girls' school in Sarajevo, Ber aspired to become a teacher. She left for Vienna in 1908, first enrolling in a private art school, then, in 1910, in a private women's art school. During her studies in Vienna, she lived in dire circumstances, unable to get a scholarship because she was a woman, the state feeling that money spent on educating women was "thrown away". Owing to her great talent, a college professor at the Vienna school decided to provide her with a free education.

Career

After graduating in June 1914, she returned to Sarajevo with hopes of opening a private painting school. World War I broke out later that same month when

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. F ...

was

assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The outbreak of war made it impossible for Ber to open a painting school. Ber organized her first solo art exhibit in Sarajevo after the First World War in 1919. Ber died in 1966, aged 77.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ber, Adela 1888 births 1966 deaths Artists from Tuzla Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina painters Yugoslav painters