Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876 - 1907)

Paula Modersohn-Becker

Paula Moderzohn-Becker was a German early expressionist painter.

In her youth she attended the traditional School for Women Artists in Berlin. Like many local German artists, she painted sentimental landscapes and scenes from peasant life.

And in 1900 Paula traveled with her husband to Paris, where she was influenced by post-Impressionist paintings and became an ardent enthusiast of painting by Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne. Today she is considered a forerunner of Expressionism because of the power of her compositions, although during her lifetime she was completely ignored. During her short career Moderzohn-Becker painted 750 canvases, about 1,000 drawings and 13 etchings, all of which incorporated the major art movements of the early 20th century.