BONNEAU, Florence Mary
Florence Mary Bonneau was born at Crown Crescent, Twickenham, Middlesex in 1851, daughter of Cornelius Bonneau, civil service ordnance office at The Tower, and his wife Annette Eliza née Bache, who married at St James’s, London on 17 October 1846. Florence studied at Heatherley School of Fine Art and was a painter of flowers, genre, and literary subjects. Her father died at Hastings, Sussex in 1866, aged 49 and in 1871, Florence was living at 8 Cambridge Place, Kensington, London with her 45-year-old widowed mother, and 18-year-old sibling brother Charles, who was blind. Florence exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1874 ‘A Norman Peasant’, in 1877 'La Siesta' and ‘Princess Parizade' and in 1881 'The Talking Bird’, also exhibiting at The Royal Academy; the Walker Art Gallery and the Society of Women Artists 1871-1904 from Bayswater, London 1881 and Wembley, Middlesex in 1904. In 1891, Florence was living at St Katharine’s, Clifton Road, Millbrook, Southampton with her widowed mother and brother Charles and she married on 11 May 1896, Charles William Cockburn, an accountant. In 1901, they were all living at 55 Cavendish Road, Willesden, Middlesex and by 1911, had all moved to Meadow Bank, Wickham Bishops, Witham, Essex where Charles William Cockburn was a 49-year-old retired accountant. After the First World War they moved to The Dutch House, Walberswick, Suffolk from where Florence taught in the local school. Florence Mary Cockburn died at Walberswick on 26 December 1937, aged 86. She signed her works either as both 'F. M. Bonneau' or 'F. M. Cockburn'.
Royal Academy Exhibits
from 8 Cambridge Place, Kensington Gate
1877 231 La Siesta