Paula Modersohn-Becker Overview

Paula Modersohn-Becker was born in Dreden on February 8, 1876. Two years later her family moved to Bremen. In 1892 she received her first drawing lessons during a seven-month stay with one of her father´s sisters in England. Upon her parent´s request she attended a class for female teachers from 1883 to 1885. At the same time the artist Bernhardt Wiegant taught her drawing and painting. - In 1895 the "Kunsthalle Bremen" exhibited works by artist from Worpswede for the first time. In 1896 Paula Modersohn-Becker attended a course by the "Verein der Berliner Kuenstlerinnen" which she was followed by a one and a half year apprenticeship. At first she focused on drawing lessons with portrait and nude studies, later she entered Jeanne Bauck´s painting class. In the summer of 1897 she visited Worpswede for the first time and became acquainted with Fritz Mackensen who taught her henceforth. In the fall of 1898 she finally moved to Worpswede. Between 1900 and 1907 she traveled to Paris several times. During prolonged so journs in Paris., she studied at the "Colarossi" academy and the "Ecole des Beaux Arts", where she socialized with the artistic Avant-garde. Paula Modersohn-Becker was especially influenced by Cezanne and Gaugin, and was one of the first in Germany to recognize their immense importance. - In 1901 she married Otto Modersohn,whom she had met in Worpswede in 1897. In November 1907 their daughter was born. The same month Paula died of a heart attack. - Emanating from the expressive natural lyrism of the turn of the century, the artist arrived with her pictures of rural women and children, large-sized and color-expressive paintings, which made her a precursor of German Expressionism.