Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) spent most of her
childhood in Bremen, Germany, and decided to become a painter at a young age.
After her education at a private painting and drawing school in Berlin, she
continued her studies from 1898 at the artist’s colony Worpswede with Fritz
Mackensen. In the village north Bremen she also met her future husband, the
painter Otto Modersohn (1865-1943).
In addition to numerous paintings, impressionistic
studies of the Worpswede moorland and birch tree landscape emerged during this
period. These studies already show Modersohn-Becker’s preference for a strictly
reduced picture composition and its departure from deep-illusion.
After a few years in the narrow circle of Worpswede
painters, she travelled to Paris for the first time in 1900. There she
encountered the works of the French avant-garde, who confirmed her in her
search for new forms of expression. By 1907, three more stays in Paris
followed. From 1903, she increasingly served the still-life to clarify formal
questions – the influence of Paul Cézanne’s sill-lifes becomes apparent.
The human form is very much at the centre of
Modersohn-Becker’s work; children, old women, and Worpsweder peasants inspired
her to undertake portraiture.
Only after she died at an early age, her extensive
work was seen and she was recognised as being among the pioneers of the modern
style and the
first woman to paint a full-length nude self-portrait.
This is part 1 of a 5-part post on the works of Paula
Modersohn-Becker:
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| 1896 Self-Portrait Semi-nude with Amber Necklace II oil on canvas 61.1 x 50 cm KunstmuseumBasel |
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| 1896 Self-Portrait Semi-nude with Amber Necklace photo study |
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| 1897 Girl with Tiger Lilies oil on cardboard 39.3 x 48 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1897 Portrait of a Girl in Landscape oil on cardboard 44.5 x 49 cm Private Collection |
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| 1897 Self-Portrait gouache 24.5 x 26.5 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1897 Self-Portrait gouache 42 x 32 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1897 Self-Portrait pastel 45.8 x 30.8 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1897-98 Portrait of an Old Woman in Profile oil on cardboard 66 x 45 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen |
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| 1898 Peasant Woman with Child at Breast charcoal and red chalk 80 x 46 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1898 Portrait of a Woman charcoal and graphite on wove paper 34.4 x 49.1 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1898 Self-Portrait tempera? on paper 28.2 x 23 cm Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany |
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| 1899-1902c Seated Old Woman etching on green paper 19 x 14.5 cm de Young/Legion of Honour Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA |
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| 1898 Study for "Seated Old Woman" 40.3 x 26 cm |
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| 1898-99 Peasant Woman with Fork indian ink, pastel and graphite 44.5 x 74.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1898-99 Portrait of a Peasant Woman charcoal on cream wove paper 46.7 x 65.4 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1898c Portrait of an Old Woman oil on cardboard 67.9 x 48.6 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen |
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| 1898c Portrait of a Woman with Poppies oil on cardboard 57 x 46 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1899 Birch Tree in a Landscape oil on composite board 55.4 x 42.1 cm Harvard Art Museums © 2017 President and Fellows of Harvard College |
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| 1899 Chalet etching and aquatint in green-black on wove paper 14.3 x 11.2 cm ( plate ) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1899 Landscape with Marsh Channel oil on cardboard 46 x 73.5 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1899 Sand Dune in Weyerberg oil on cardboard 55 x 74 cm Neue Pinakothek - Bayerische Staatgemäldsammlungen, Munich, Germany |
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| 1899 Seated Female Nude charcoal 103 x 68 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1899 Standing Female Nude to the Right charcoal 169 x 80 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1899 Standing Male Nude to the Left charcoal 189.5 x 84.5 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1899-1902c Seated Old Woman etching on green paper 19 x 14.5 cm de Young/Legion of Honour Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA |
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| 1899-1902c Two Farmer's Girls etching with drypoint and roulette on cream wove paper 14 x 10 cm |
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| 1899c Old Blind Woman Sitting charcoal 45.8 x 36.5 cm Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Bremen-Berlin, Germany |
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| 1899c Old Blind Woman Sitting pastel 73.5 x 47 cm Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Germany |
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| 1899c Seated Female Nude charcoal with stumping 62.2 x 33.9 cm ( sheet ) The Ceveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| 1899c Standing Nude Girl, Arms Crossed Behind the Head charcoal 124.5 x 41.5 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1900 Apple Tree against a Bright Sky oil on pencil sketch on thin brown cardboard 42 x 54.9 cm |
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| 1900 Birch Trees in front of a Barn oil on card 55.5 x 41.7 cm Private Collection |
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| 1900 Don Quixote oil on cardboard 53 x 39 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen |
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| 1900 Marsh Channel with Peat Barges tempera on cardboard 36 x 51 cm Private Collection |
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| 1900 Portrait of a Young Lady in Red Hat oil on cardboard 68 x 45 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1900 Sand Pit oil on cardboard 41 x 54 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1900 Standing Female Nude, Against a Dark Wall charcoal and brown chalk 59.5 x 42 cm Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany |
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| 1900 Still Life with Blue and White Porcelain and Kettle oil on cardboard 50 x 58 cm Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover, Germany |
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| 1900 Worpsweder Landscape with Red House Lower Saxony State Museum, Hanover, Germany |
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| 1900-02 Fruit Tree in Bloom charcoal on blue laid paper 26.3 x 31.6 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1900-02 Sitting Child drypoint on vellum 8.5 x 12 cm |
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| 1900-02 The Goose Girl etching and aquatint printed in brown on japan paper 25.5 x 20.5 cm |
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| 1900-02 The Moor tempera on cardboard 54.1 x 33 cm Private Collection |
