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Paula Modersohn-Becker (February 8, 1876 – November 21, 1907) was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of early expressionism. In a brief career, cut short by an embolism at the age of 31, she created a number of groundbreaking images of great intensity.
Life and work
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Paula Becker was born and grew up in Dresden-Friedrichstadt. She was the third child of seven children in her family. Her father, who was the son of a Russian university professor, was employed with the German railway. He and Paula's mother, who was from an aristocratic family, provided the children a cultured and intellectual environment in the house hold.
In 1888 her parents moved from Dresden to Bremen. While visiting an aunt in London, England, she received her first instruction in drawing. In the spring of 1893 Paula Becker saw pictures from the artists' circle of Worpswede for the first time: Otto Modersohn, Fritz Mackensen, Fritz Overbeck and Heinrich Vogeler presented their paintings in the Kunsthalle Bremen. Apart from her teacher's training in Bremen in 1893-1895, Paula took private instruction in painting. In 1896 she participated in a course for painting and drawing sponsored by the "Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen" (Union of Berlin Female Artists) which offered art studies to women.
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At the age of 22, she encountered the artistic community of Worpswede. In this "village", artists such as Fritz Mackensen (1866-1953) and Heinrich Vogeler (1872-1942) had retreated to protest against the domination of the art academy and life in the big city. At Worpswede, Paula Modersohn-Becker took painting lessons from Mackensen. The main subjects were the life of the farmers and the northern German landscape. At this time she began close friendships with the sculptor Clara Westhoff (1875-1954) and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926).
Trips to Paris
New Year's Eve 1899 Paula Becker traveled to Paris. Clara Westhoff, her girlfriend from Worpswede was in Paris since the end of 1899, because she hoped to become a student of Auguste Rodin. In 1900, Paula Becker studied at the Académie Colarossi in the Quartier Latin in Paris.
Since April 1900 the great Centennial Exhibition was held in Paris. On this occasion the couple Overbeck and with them Otto Modersohn arrived in June. Modersohn's health ailing wife Helen had been left in Worpswede and died during the short time he spent in Paris. Modersohn and the couple rushed back to Germany.
In 1901 she married Otto Modersohn and became a stepmother to Otto's daughter, Elsbeth Modersohn, the child from his first marriage.
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Until 1907 Paula made another six extended trips to Paris for artistic purposes, sometimes living separately from her husband, Otto. During one of her residencies in Paris, she took courses at the École des Beaux-Arts. She visited contemporary exhibitions often, and was particularly intrigued with the work of Paul Cézanne. Other post impressionists were especially influential, including Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Fauve influences may also appear in such works as Poorhouse Woman with a Glass Bottle. The influence by the work of French painter, Jean-François Millet, who was widely admired among the artists in the Worpswede group, may be seen in such pieces as her 1900 Peat Cutters.
In her last trip to Paris in 1906, she produced a series of paintings from which she felt very great excitement and satisfaction. During this period of painting, she produced her initial nude self-portraits - something surely unprecedented by a female painter - and portraits of friends such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Werner Sombart. Some art historians consider this period to be the strongest and most compelling time of her art production.
Last year
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In 1907, Paula Modersohn-Becker returned to her husband in Worpswede, despite period correspondence that indicate her desire for independence. She wrote in detail about her love for her husband but her need to delay motherhood in pursuit of freedom. Paula continued to express ambivalence regarding motherhood; she was concerned about the ability to paint while raising a child. Her daughter Mathilde (Tillie) Modersohn was born on November 2, 1907. Paula and Otto were joyous. Sadly, the joy became soon overshadowed by tragedy, as Paula Modersohn-Becker died suddenly in Worpswede on November 20 from an embolism, caused by a misguided medical instruction, 18 days of bed rest after labor. She was buried on the Worpswede Cemetery, her grave is preserved.
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In 1908, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the renowned poem "Requiem for a Friend" in memory of Paula. The poem was born from the impressions which Paula's life, death and friendship had left upon Rilke.
Appreciation
Already in 1899 the sculptor Clara Westhoff made a bust of her friend Paula Becker as a symbol of their friendship and shared passion for art.
Her daughter Tillie (1907-1998) founded the Paula Modersohn-Becker-Foundation (Paula Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung) in 1978.
In 1988 a stamp with the portrait of Paula Modersohn-Becker was issued in the series Women in German history by the Deutsche Bundespost.
Paula Becker House
A former house of Paula Modersohn-Becker's in Bremen, where she spent much of her life, opened in October 2007 as a private art museum and gallery.[1] Her family moved from Dresden to Bremen in 1888 and lived in this house. Paula Becker lived here until 1899 - when she was 23 years old - and set up her first studio. There was an active artist community in Bremen and via Backer's mother's friendships in the art world, Becker grew to be part of the community. Apart from her teacher's training in Bremen in 1893-1895, Paula took private instruction in painting.[2] It was not well known, that the young Paula Becker lived here for ten years. In 2003, Heinz and Betty Thies bought the house which was now greatly in need of renovation. It was lovingly restored in time for the 100th anniversary of Paula Modersohn-Becker's death in November 2007. At that time, it was turned into a public museum.[3]
Gallery
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Self portrait, 1902
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Mädchen mit Strohhut und Blume, 1902
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Stillende Mutter, 1902
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Bauernkind auf rotgewürfeltem Kissen, c.1904
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Mädchen mit Kaninchen, 1905
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Still life, 1906
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1906
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Self-Portrait,1906
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Selbstporträt, 1906–07
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Kinderakt mit Goldfischglas, 1906–07
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Stilleben mit Tonkrug, 1907
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Die Malerin mit Kamelienzweig (Selbstporträt), 1907
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See also
References
- ^ "Kunstkabinett website". Haus-paula-becker.de. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
- ^ "Eine Straße für Paula Modersohn-Becker!" (in German). Bremen. Verwaltung online. 5 February 2001. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
- ^ "Where Paula spent her childhood (German)". Abendblatt.de. 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
- The initial English site is a translation of the corresponding German Wikipedia site from 6/20/2005
Bibliography
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- Marina Bohlmann-Modersohn: Paula Modersohn-Becker. Eine Biographie mit Briefen. 3. Auflage. Knaus, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-8135-2594-5
- Günther Busch, Liselotte von Reinken, Arthur S. Wensinger, Carole Clew Hoey: Paula Modersohn-Becker, The Letters and Journals. Northwestern University Press, 1990.
- Anne Higonnet: "Making Babies, Painting Bodies: Women, Art, and Paula Modersohn-Becker's Productivity." Woman's Art Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (2009):15-21, illus.
- Averil King, Paula Modersohn-Becker, 'Antique Collectors Club, 2006
- Paula Modersohn-Becker: The Letters and Journals of Paula Modersohn-Becker. Translated & annotated by J. Diane Radycki. Introduction by Alessandra Comini.
Epilogue of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke (Requiem, 1908, translated by Adrienne Rich & Lilly Engler) and by Adrienne Rich ("Paula Becker to Clara Westhoff", 1975–76). Metuchen, N.J., & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-8108-1344-0
- Paula Modersohn-Becker, Sophie Dorothee Gallwitz: Eine Künstlerin: Paula Becker-Modersohn. Briefe und Tagebuchblätter. Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover 1917
- Gillian Perry: Paula Modersohn-Becker: Her Life and Work. Harper & Row 1979.
- Diane Radycki: "American Women Artists in Munich, or Die Frauen ohne Schatten." In: American Artists in Munich: Artistic Migration and Cultural Exchange Processes, eds. Christian Fuhrmeister, Hubertus Kohle and Veerle Thielemans, pp. 109–24, illus. Modersohn-Becker & O'Keeffe. Berlin, München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-422-06833-9
- Diane Radycki: "Paula Modersohn-Becker: The Gendered Discourse in Modernism." Ph.D.dissertation, Harvard University, 1993 (readers: Konrad Oberhuber and Norman Bryson). UMI 93-31,015.
- Diane Radycki: "Pictures of Flesh: Modersohn-Becker and the Nude." Woman's Art Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (2009):3-14, illus. http://home.moravian.edu/users/art/medjr01/
- Diane Radycki: "Pretty/ Ugly: Morphing Paula Modersohn-Becker and Marie Laurencin." Make, no. 72 (1996):19-21, illus.
- Rainer Stamm: "Paula Modersohn-Becker and the Body in Art." Woman's Art Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (2009):22-4, illus.
- Monica J. Strauss: "Helen Serger's Galerie La Boetie: Paula Modersohn-Becker on Madison Avenue." Woman's Art Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (2009):32-5, illus.
- Eric Torgersen: Dear Friend: Rainer Maria Rilke and Paula Modersohn-Becker. Northwestern University Press, 1998.
External links
- Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen
- Otto Modersohn Museum in Fischerhude
- "Pictures of Flesh: Modersohn-Becker and the Nude" Article by Dr. Diane Radycki
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