Paula Modersohn-Becker’s ‘Landscape under Trees’
Grinnell College Museum of Art Collection Highlights
Highlights from the Grinnell College Museum of Art collection, with expert commentary from Associate Director Dan Strong.
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By Grinnell College Museum of Art Associate Director Dan Strong
Paula Modersohn-Becker
German (1876–1907)
Landscape under Trees, 1902
Roulette, etching
Marie-Louise and Samuel R. Rosenthal Fund (2007.039)
Had her life not been cut short, Paula Modersohn-Becker would be recognized as one of the 20th century’s most pioneering artists. Her disregard for convention drew her from late 19th-century realism and naturalism to the height of the avant-garde, in which she steeped herself during several stays in Paris between 1898 and 1907. Influenced first by Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh, Modersohn-Becker came into her own in 1906, painting what is recognized as the first nude self-portrait in western art. There is speculation that her work influenced Pablo Picasso at this critical moment in his artistic development, although it is not yet confirmed if they actually met. Sadly, Modersohn-Becker survived the birth of her daughter by less than three weeks, dying from a pulmonary embolism at just 31 in 1907.