Iwar Donnér was born in Sölvesborg in 1884 to August Donner, who was the mayor of the town, and Alma Lundgren Donner. At a young age he went to see above the British ship Ewardina that cruised between the UK and Rangoon, until she sank whilst he was on leave in Liverpool. Donnér began studying art at Valand Academy in Gothenburg, which was followed by a ten-year period 1910-1920 in Copenhagen where he made the acquaintance of the Swedish female author Ulla Bjerne. In the years 1920-1922 he was in Paris, where he studied under L'hote and Arogeau, and later returned to Paris and travelled extensively in the Mediterranean.