Who Was Paula Modersohn-Becker?
Another talented woman artist that the history of art has made us forget
If you have been reading me for some time, you know my penchant for women. Artists, queens, courtesans, spies, dancers. All the women who made History with a capital H, and this same History has passed under silence. I try today, in my small way, to bring these women back to light, through my work as a tour guide, through my blog, and through these short articles on Medium. And today we go to Germany to meet a talented artist, Paula Modersohn-Becker. She is said to be a pioneer of the expressionist movement, and a master of simplified forms, but Paula Modersohn-Becker practiced her art of painting outside of any predefined box, letting a striking chromatic palette burst forth. Although she was successful during her lifetime, her untimely death contributed to her erasure from the art world. Let me tell you her story today.
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter born in 1876. She was the third of seven children. She was born in Dresden, Germany, but grew up in the city of Bremen, in a middle-class family. The siblings received a very good education that left a great deal of…
