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Lot Essay
Paula Modersohn-Becker's name is strongly associated with the idealistic, nature embracing Worpswede colony north of Bremen, which she joined in 1898. Her decision to move to the countryside was driven by the then fashionable attitude of anti-urbanism. These ideas were championed by the sociologist Georg Simmel in his Die Großsstädte und das Geistesleben of 1903 and further promoted by Julius Langbehn, with his book Rembrandt als Erzieher, published in 1903.
In 1900 Modersohn-Becker left Worpswede for a short period of time. First travelling to Berlin, where she studied at the Society of Women Artists, and later she travelled to Paris. She spent a significant amount of time in Paris, where she studied at the private academies of Colarossi and Julian, and attended an anatomy course at the École des Beaux Arts. The artist's activities in Paris were typical for women artists of the time. Paris attracted a large number of foreign female contemporaries who could enrol in one of the private academies. Contemporaries of Modersohn-Becker were Käthe Kollwitz, Mary Cassatt and Helene Schjerfbeck.
In 1901 Modersohn-Becker returned to Worpswede. Here, with her husband Otto Modersohn, she set about building an ideal environment for their artistic endeavours. In her paintings and drawings dating from this final phase in her career - key works of the Expressionist movement in Germany - Modersohn-Becker concentrates on three cardinal genres - landscape and still-lifes and figurative scenes. Her works from this period reflect the influence of the antique as well as the influence of contemporary French artists, such as Maillol, Van Gogh and Gauguin.
Probably due to personal interest as well as accessibility as a woman artist, images of women - the female nude, mother and child groups, adolescent girls and portraits of women - are important themes in the artist's oeuvre. Her art also embraces the simple and rural life, as articulated in her mother and child pictures. The subject, notably explored in Christian and Renaissance paintings with the Madonna and Child, is presented by Modersohn-Becker in a manner which is very human and very grounded – she may not be depicting the Son of God, but she is depicting God’s people. In the present work, the mother and her child are depicted in muted provincial clothing – they seem to be locals from Worpswede, in their everyday clothes, not models posing for a picture. This gives her work a unique quality, and she is able to capture the very essence of her subjects, who are not subjects at all but true people with true emotion. The mother looks down towards her child, her eyes almost closed, beaming with affection. The child, eyes wide open, stares out beyond the picture. Here is pure unrequited love from a mother towards her child. The child, undisturbed and unperturbed by the outside world, is expectant and ready to leap into the future.
The present work has a rich and varied provenance and history. After Paula Modersohn-Becker’s death in 1907, the work was passed down to her widower, the painter Otto Modersohn. The picture was later in the collection of the respected author of Modersohn-Becker literature, Manfred Hausmann. It has recently come to light that there are some sensitivities around publications Hausmann made between 1933-1945. The work was also owned by Marvin and Janet Fishman, great American collectors of German Expressionist art. The painting has also been exhibited extensively, including three separate times at the Kunsthalle in Bremen.
In 1900 Modersohn-Becker left Worpswede for a short period of time. First travelling to Berlin, where she studied at the Society of Women Artists, and later she travelled to Paris. She spent a significant amount of time in Paris, where she studied at the private academies of Colarossi and Julian, and attended an anatomy course at the École des Beaux Arts. The artist's activities in Paris were typical for women artists of the time. Paris attracted a large number of foreign female contemporaries who could enrol in one of the private academies. Contemporaries of Modersohn-Becker were Käthe Kollwitz, Mary Cassatt and Helene Schjerfbeck.
In 1901 Modersohn-Becker returned to Worpswede. Here, with her husband Otto Modersohn, she set about building an ideal environment for their artistic endeavours. In her paintings and drawings dating from this final phase in her career - key works of the Expressionist movement in Germany - Modersohn-Becker concentrates on three cardinal genres - landscape and still-lifes and figurative scenes. Her works from this period reflect the influence of the antique as well as the influence of contemporary French artists, such as Maillol, Van Gogh and Gauguin.
Probably due to personal interest as well as accessibility as a woman artist, images of women - the female nude, mother and child groups, adolescent girls and portraits of women - are important themes in the artist's oeuvre. Her art also embraces the simple and rural life, as articulated in her mother and child pictures. The subject, notably explored in Christian and Renaissance paintings with the Madonna and Child, is presented by Modersohn-Becker in a manner which is very human and very grounded – she may not be depicting the Son of God, but she is depicting God’s people. In the present work, the mother and her child are depicted in muted provincial clothing – they seem to be locals from Worpswede, in their everyday clothes, not models posing for a picture. This gives her work a unique quality, and she is able to capture the very essence of her subjects, who are not subjects at all but true people with true emotion. The mother looks down towards her child, her eyes almost closed, beaming with affection. The child, eyes wide open, stares out beyond the picture. Here is pure unrequited love from a mother towards her child. The child, undisturbed and unperturbed by the outside world, is expectant and ready to leap into the future.
The present work has a rich and varied provenance and history. After Paula Modersohn-Becker’s death in 1907, the work was passed down to her widower, the painter Otto Modersohn. The picture was later in the collection of the respected author of Modersohn-Becker literature, Manfred Hausmann. It has recently come to light that there are some sensitivities around publications Hausmann made between 1933-1945. The work was also owned by Marvin and Janet Fishman, great American collectors of German Expressionist art. The painting has also been exhibited extensively, including three separate times at the Kunsthalle in Bremen.