Paula Modersohn-Becker
German expressionist painterEarly Years / Family Life
Paula Modersohn-Becker was born the third of seven children in Dresden, Germany. Her father, the son of a Russian university professor, was employed with the German railway, while her mother was from an aristocratic family. Modersohn-Becker grew up in a cultured and intellectual home environment.Education
1896 / Association of Berlin Women Artists1900 / Academie Colarossi
Influences
Paul CézanneVincent van Gogh
Paul Gauguin
Themes in Artwork
fertilitymotherhood
Timeline
- 1876 / born on February 8 in Dresden-Friedrichstadt
- 1888 / parents moved from Dresden to Bremen
- 1892 / Visits aunt in London & attends art classes
- 1895 / attended an exhibition of the Worpswede painters at the Bremen Kunsthalle
- 1896 / attends women's art school in Berlin
- 1897 / spent a few weeks studying in Worpswede
- 1998 / moves to Worpswede to live and study
- 1900 / first trip to Paris; enrolls at the Academie Colarossi
- 1900 / meets Rainer Maria Rilke
- 1901 / marries Otto Modersohn
- 1903 / second trip to Paris
- 1905 / third trip to Paris
- 1906 / fourth trip to Paris; separation from Otto Modersohn
- 1907 / gives birth to a daughter
- 1907 / died on November 21 at age 31 of a cardiac embolism
- 1917 / publication of diaries and letters
- 1958 / first American exhibition, at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York
Examples of Work
Self Portrait / 1906 / 62.2 x 48.2 cm
Old Armenhäuslerin In The Garden / 1906 / 96 x 80.2 cm
Reclining Mother and Child / 1906 / 124 x 82 cm