orig. Paula Becker
born Feb. 8, 1876, Dresden, Ger.
died Nov. 30, 1907, Worpswede
German painter.
After studying art in London and Paris, she became one of the first artists to introduce French Post-Impressionism into German art. While her early work is meticulously naturalistic, her later paintings, such as Self-Portrait with a Camellia (1907), combine a lyrical naturalism with the broad areas of simplified colour characteristic of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne . Since her painting is more concerned with the expression of her inner feelings than with the accurate portrayal of reality, she is frequently called an Expressionist . She died at 31 while giving birth to her first child.
Self-Portrait with a Camellia , oil on canvas by Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1907; in the Museum ...
Courtesy of the Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany.