On New Year’s Eve, Paula Modersohn-Becker arrived in Paris. In her early twenties and determined to become a painter, she was probably carrying her best clothes, some cash and drawing utensils in her luggage. Cell phone, credit card and rolling suitcase? Not a chance. A weird comparison comes to mind: The Netflix series Emily in Paris shows the extroverted Emily from Chicago, who quickly becomes an Instagram star with selfies in designer outfits without a clue about French culture and language. This intrepid, curious and positive Emily reminds me of the young Paula Becker, who embarked on a far more daring and real journey on the last day of the 19th century. Back in 1900, Paula was all about emancipation, self-realization and self-portraits. Today she is considered a superstar of painting. In 1927, she was the first woman to have her own museum dedicated to her, although she had already been dead for 20 years. In 2024, she will finally receive her first major retrospective in the USA. The Art Institute Chicago is showing over 50 of her works, including her most famous self-portrait.
Paula in Chicago
Despite her significance for art history and her posthumous status as a feminist icon, Paula Modersohn-Becker has never been seen in a retrospective in the USA. This exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of her work in this country. It shows the entire spectrum of her work, which ended tragically in 1907 at the age of just 31. She died of an embolism after the birth of her daughter Tille. The Art Institute Chicago is showing over 50 paintings, 15 large-format drawings and five etchings from October 12, 2024 to January 12, 2025. The retrospective was already on show in New York in summer 2024.
One of her most famous self-portraits shows Paula on her sixth wedding anniversary, May 25, 1906, half-naked with a hint of her pregnant belly. It is the first nude self-portrait of a female painter in art history. Paula painted it during her fourth stay in Paris, separated from her husband Otto Modersohn, while she was dealing with pregnancy and childbirth but was not pregnant herself. In Germany, her works can mainly be seen in Bremen and Worpswede.
Paula in Worpswede
A postcard showing one of her early self-portraits, painted in 1900 during her first trip to Paris, has been leaning against my computer for weeks. Her gaze is self-confident, her lips pursed. She’s wearing a dark blouse with a white tie. The typical light-colored houses of Paris can be seen in the background. The city seems to have her back. With her innovative style, which emphasized expression over representation, she became a pioneer of Expressionism. Among more than 700 paintings, around 1,400 drawings and eleven prints, her depictions of childhood, motherhood, pregnancy and old age stand out. Paula Modersohn-Becker is best known for her numerous self-portraits.
As far as is known, she only sold five paintings during her lifetime, one to the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The two met in Worpswede in 1900. It was not until 1906 that Rilke recognized her as an artist and wrote: “The strangest thing was to find Modersohn’s wife in a completely unique development of her painting, painting ruthlessly and straight ahead, things that are very Worpswedean and that no one has ever been able to see and paint before. And in this very unique way, strangely in touch with van Gogh and his direction.” In 1906, Rilke encouraged her in her desire to return to Paris. He bought one of her paintings to finance the trip. On this last trip to Paris, she visited the sculptor Bernhard Hoetger, who was enthusiastic about her work. His encouragement spurred her on to create a total of 90 paintings between 1906 and 1907. In 1906, she wrote to Rilke: “And now I don’t know how to write my name. I am no longer Modersohn and I am no longer Paula Becker, I am I, and I hope to become more and more so.”
In November 1907, Paula Modersohn-Becker dies in Worpswede. Her grave is in the Zion Church cemetery. Traces of her time in the Worpswede artists’ colony can be found above all in her former home, which is now a museum, and also in the Zion Church.
Paula in Bremen
The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen is the world’s first museum dedicated to a female painter. It was commissioned by Kaffee HAG founder and patron Ludwig Roselius. It was built in 1927 by Bernhard Hoetger, who inspired her last creative phase in Paris in 1906. Works from all of the artist’s creative phases are on display in the expressionist brick building. A large part of her work is concentrated in Bremen. The museum’s collection, the holdings of the Paula Modersohn-Becker Foundation and the holdings of the Kunsthalle Bremen.
More about the painter Paula Modersohn-Becker
- Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen
- Art Institute Chicago, “I am Me”, October 2024 to January 2025, Chicago
- Museum at the Modersohn House, The Old Worpswede Masters, Worpswede
- Kunsthalle Bremen, Collection of Modern Art, Bremen
Bust of Paula Modersohn-Becker. Created in 1899 by her friend, the sculptor Clara Rilke-Westhoff / © Photo: Georg Berg
The research was supported by Bremen Tourismus and Worpswede Touristik