Elin Danielson was born in the small village of Noormarkku, near the city of Pori in Western Finland. At the age of fifteen she moved to Helsinki and started studying in the Academy of Fine Arts where her teachers included Carl Eneas Sjöstrand (1828–1906) and Hjalmar Munsterhjelm (1840-1905). In 1878, Danielson started courses with Adolf von Becker (1831–1909).
In 1883 she left for Paris. She took lessons at the Académie Colarossi under Gustave Courtois (1852– 1923) and painted in Brittany during the summertime. A few years later she returned to Finland and lived with her relatives in Noormarkku and Pori.
Later Success
In 1888 she opened an atelier in Noormarkku. During the 1880s and 1890s, she also worked as a teacher in several art schools around Finland.
In 1895, she received a scholarship and traveled to Florence, Italy. A year later she moved to the village of Antignano and married an Italian painter, Raffaello Gambogi (1874–1943).
They had exhibitions in Paris, Florence