By Cheryl Anderson
The only self-portrait “painting” from her first extended stay in Paris, 1900. Proud and determined.
“Ich bin ich / I am me” —Paula Modersohn-Becker
Paula wrote those words to her friend German poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1906 at a time when she had left her husband hoping “to become Me more and more.” During her life, she sought to find her identity as a human, as a woman and especially as an artist. I wonder did she know her life would be short so she must make haste? Somewhere deep inside perhaps. I see the intensity in her self-portraits of her search. It has been noted that she is the first woman artist to paint nude self-portraits, including nude while pregnant. Herma, Paula’s sister, said Paula possessed “extreme Individualism.”
The first in the series of her hand on her chin self-portraits, 1906.
Statue of Ramsesin the Louvre and 2 monotypes on newspaper self-portraits.
Self-portrait hand on her chin, 1906.
In 1898, she wrote in her diary: “I am breathless…I want to go further and further. I can hardly wait until I am a real artist.” She would strive to bring authenticity to everything she painted be it “a nude, a jug or a tree.” Throughout her exploration of finding her identity and discovering the world she always sought the “singular essence of things.”
Self-portrait as though she was wearing a mask.
Photo of Paula in 1904.
A lovely photo of Paula in 1895.
Paula’s family were not without advantages. Her parents were liberal and saw the value of broadening their daughter’s horizons. They sent Paula to London and Berlin to stay with relatives. There she took classes at private academies. Her father felt education for women in Germany was lacking. Art academies were closed to women in Germany until 1919. It’s apparent that “(Paula’s) attitudes were shaped by her liberal background; her strong belief in equality for herself and the women closest to her was part of her family heritage.”
The Goosegirl,1899. Etching with aquatint on paper.
Woman with Goose,1899. Etching with aquatint on paper.
Paris, being the epicenter of art, it was only natural it is where Paula went to become the artist she wanted to be. Her extended stays in Paris began in 1900…even before marriage, breaking away from Worpswede, the artist’s colony in Worpswede outside of Bremen, Germany. “Her Paris visits were periods of “rushing” that alternated with periods of consolidation in Worpswede where she had deeper roots.”
Path with Birch Trees,1900. In the moors around Worpswede
Country Road with Birch Trees,1901. In the moors around Worpswede.
Birch Trees in Front of a Red House, 1901. In the moors around Worpswede.
Sheep in the Birch Fiorest,1903. In the moors around Worpswede.
She filled her sketch book with impressions of life on the street in Paris and sketches of pieces in the Louvre, but only one painting was produced during her first visit in Paris, Self-Portrait with View from the Artist’s Studio in Paris. With a look of triumph on her face, “I made it.” Paris was the location, but was not the subject. She felt she was growing as an artist. There, she learned, she grew, attended private academies where women could attend, visited galleries, museums and met artists she admired. The Exposition Universelle was in Paris that year,1900. She was inspired by the contemporary artists she encountered pulling her away from the traditional painting at Worpswede. She was drawn to their simplified forms and more symbolic rather than naturalistic interpretations. Innovative and new, her own style of landscapes, portraiture and still-life “challang(ed) the traditional boundaries of artistic genres.”
Paula in her “lily” studio in Worpswede, 1900.
Still-life with a Green Flower Vase,1902. Oil tempera on cardboard. Painted in her “lily” studio in Worpswede.
Old Woman from the Poorhouse Sitting in the Garden, 1905. Oil tempera on canvas.
Head of a Girl in Left Profile with Striped Hat,1905.
Cézanne and the avant-garde artists that exhibited between 1889-1900, Les Nabis, were her particular favorites…with Paul Gauguin as an example. Les Nabis emphasized how important were colored areas. Paul Sérusier’s, The Talisman, stands out to me. In her painting, Self-Portrait in front of Trees in Bloom,1903, nature is the backdrop. In this painting, the blooms of the tree form a garland of flowers like a crown on her head…a traditional symbol of victory.
Self-portrait in front of Trees in Bloom,1903.
Self-Portrait with Hat and Veil,1906-07.
Rilke found Paula “developing her painting in a way all her own, recklessly and straightforwardly painting things that are very Worpswedish, and yet that no one before her has ever been able to see and paint. And, on this very idiosyncratic path, strangely close to Van Gogh and his artistic direction”, 1906.
Self-Portrait with Blue Glass, 1902.
Self-Portrait, Half-Length, Facing Left, Holding a Bowl and a Glass, 1904.
The Worpswede landscape paintings of the birch trees (series) had a special meaning for Paula. She described them as “delicate young virgins who delight the eye…Some are already masculine and bold, with strong and straight trunks. Those are my ‘modern women.’”
Self-Portrait with Red Rose, 1905.
Self-Portrait with Amber Necklace, 1905.
Placing her hand on her chin was a habit of Paula’s when she was thinking. For example, how to proceed with a painting, what dress or jewelry to wear. This habit appears in a series of self-portraits. The gesture has been compared to the ceremonial beard worn by Pharaohs in Egyptian sculptures…sculptures she saw in the Louvre. The first of these, Self-Portrait in a Blue and White Striped Dress, was painted in the summer of 1906. Self-Portrait Turned to the Right, with Her Hand on Her Chin, painted that same summer, appears as though she is wearing a mask…as though the mask is melted onto her face. “It is a reflection on the relationship between appearance and underlying truth, and the roll-playing that is integral to human identity.” Paula had seen African masks in the Trocadero Museum. Without knowledge of that culture, it was her pure reaction to what she saw. I find her self-portraits different from one another. Perhaps, each time she saw a different side of her personality. What mask was she wearing in that moment?
Self-Portrait before a Green Background with Blue Iris, 1905
Self-Portrait with White Pearl Necklace, 1906.
Paula’s works were recently displayed at the Chicago Art Institute. They were on loan from the Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie in New York… a gallery dedicated to German and Austrian art. I was not familiar with her art, but found her life’s story fascinating and learning the importance of her art to the world…an early expressionist. As her life was very short, February 8, 1876 to November 20, 1907, her body of work was quite an accomplishment, 784 paintings, 1,400 drawings and 11 prints,. Paula and her husband were joyous when their daughter Matilda (Tillie) was born on November 2, 1907. It will never be known what sort of mother or what lessons she would have taught her baby girl. I read she sat holding her baby, in a great deal of leg pain, saying as she died, “What a pity.” That it was. There is little doubt that Paula Modersohn-Becker made a lasting contribution to art. I believe her darling “Tillie” would have been proud.
Self-Portrait with Camellia Branch,1906-07.
Self-Portrait with Two Flowers in Her Raised Left Hand,1907.
Quotes and Pictures:
Paula Modersohn-Becker/Ich bin Ich. Edited by Jay A. Clarke and Jill Lloyd. The catalog of the exhibit.
