An accessible introduction to the life and work of this trailblazing pioneer of early modernism
published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Royal Academy London. Paula
Modersohn-Becker is today hailed as one of the great pioneers of modernism. When she died in
1907 at the age of just 31 she had completed more than 700 paintings and 1 000 drawings and
prints. Despite selling only a few paintings during her lifetime her distinct style daring
subject matter and perseverance in overcoming barriers to women left a significant artistic
mark on the brief epoch between the old and the new and paved the way for the German
avant-garde. Uwe M. Schneede one of the foremost experts on Modersohn-Becker's work shows how
the artist translated her life's experiences into her own very distinctive pictorial
language. He focuses in particular on her time in Paris where she absorbed the luminouspalette
and expressive brushwork of the French avantgarde and which so strongly impacted her ambitions
and artistic trajectory. Schneede's lively narrative is supported by some 120 illustrations
and peppered throughout with quotations from Modersohn's letters and diaries.
