Paula Modersohn-Becker: A Life In Art

An accessible introduction to the life and work of this early modernist pioneer, published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.

Paula Modersohn-Becker is now hailed as one of the great pioneers of modernism. By the time she died in 1907, aged just 31, she had produced over 700 paintings and 1,000 drawings and prints. Although she sold only a few paintings during her lifetime, her distinctive style, bold subject matter and perseverance in overcoming the obstacles faced by women left an important artistic mark on the brief period between the old and the new and paved the way for the German avant-garde.

Uwe M. Schneede, one of the leading experts on Modersohn-Becker’s work, shows how the artist translated her life experiences into her own distinctive pictorial language. He focuses in particular on her stay in Paris, where she absorbed the luminous palette and expressive brushstrokes of the French avant-garde, and which had a considerable impact on her ambitions and artistic trajectory. Schneede’s lively account is supported by some 120 illustrations and interspersed with quotations from Modersohn’s letters and diaries.