COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0000470
image_record_id
aahi0000470
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Young Girl in Birch Woods
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
1904
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
Paula Modersohn-Becker (German, 1867-1907)
Work Creator gender:
female
work_creator_or_agent_gender
female
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
German painter. She trained in Bremen in 1892 and subsequently studied in London. From 1894 to 1896 she took a teacher's training course at her family's insistence but then with their permission attended the Berlin Malerinnenschule, from 1896 to 1898. In 1897 she met members of the artists' colony in Worpswede, near Bremen, and in the autumn of 1898 she moved there, believing that in this unsophisticated farming village she could more easily achieve her artistic objective of simplicity (see Worpswede colony). Her teacher was Fritz Mackensen, but her friendship with the painter Otto Modersohn (18651943) was more important to her artistic development. She soon, however, came to feel that further progress depended on fresh experience. On 31 December 1899 she left for Paris, where she attended the Académie Cola Rossi. In Paris she first saw paintings by Cézanne, which confirmed her own artistic aims. In summer 1900, Paula Becker returned to Worpswede, where her circle of friends included the sculptor Clara Rilke-Westhoff (18781954), the writers Rainer Maria Rilke and Carl Hauptmann, the Jugendstil artist Heinrich Vogeler, and later the sculptor Bernhard Hoetger. In May 1901 she married Otto Modersohn, and a year of close collaboration followed. Gradually she began to question Modersohn's predominantly emotive view of nature, favouring instead a clear, straightforward structure. In landscape paintings she stressed formal principles by depicting treetrunks and the horizon in strictly vertical and horizontal terms. Images were likewise treated as interlocking surfaces of colour. She spent brief periods in Paris in spring 1903 and again in 1905. She visited museums, studying ancient Faiyum mummy portraits, Gothic sculptures, Rembrandt and the Impressionists. She also looked at more contemporary work, such as that of the Nabis, especially Maurice Denis and Pierre Bonnard. But the most significant influences were Cézanne, Gauguin and van Gogh. Modersohn-Becker's consistent, and almost totally unrecognized, pursuit of simplification and abstraction left her isolated on her return to Worpswede. In February 1906 she again set off for Paris, wanting to break away for good from the colony. It was at this time that she produced her most striking works: semi-nude or nude self-portraits and mother and child images. In her many self-portraits she radically simplified the formal structure of the face. She showed her body as a symbol of animal vitality, a life-giving vessel, less an individual character than an image of femininity itself. In Naked Woman Breast-feeding her Child (Berlin, Neue N.G.) she rejected the genre's sentimental tradition in order to convey the experience of giving new life while already sensing one's own death. A naked woman, like an archaic matriarchal goddess, is kneeling breast-feeding her child: light falls on the child, while her face is in shadow. The setting, with oranges and plants, enhances the impression of ritual activity. It is clear that the example of Cézanne and Gauguin helped her to achieve the simplification of form seen in her last works. In summer 1906 Otto Modersohn joined his wife in Paris. By spring of the following year she was expecting a baby, and the couple returned to Worpswede. She died of an embolism three weeks after their daughter's birth. (Grove Art Online Accessed 2006-07-28)
Work Style Period:
Expressionist
work_styleperiod
Expressionist
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
girls
subject
girls
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
children (people by age group)
subject
children (people by age group)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
trees
subject
trees
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
landscapes (representations)
subject
landscapes (representations)
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
painting
Work Measurements (display):
65 cm (H) x 50 cm (W)
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid type:
accession
Work Location (Geographic) name:
Stuttgart, Germany
Image Rights (display):
© Ronald Wiedenhoeft. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Saskia, Ltd.
Image Rights license agreement:
SASKIA, LTD.: WHO CAN USE THIS SOFTWARE: (a) Licensee, including faculty, staff and currently enrolled students may use the Licensed Software to display and or print the corresponding graphic images without limitation for teaching and research purposes at the defined Sites, or at remote locations having electronic access to your Site(s). (b) This license include permission to use the Licensed Software on a multi-user network at the defined Site, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your Site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the Site is also permitted. (c) Licensee agrees to employ reasonable security measures designed to limit access to your faculty, staff and currently enrolled students. PROHIBITED USES AND LIMITATIONS: (a) Saskia hereby reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. (b) the License Software may not be used for preparaiton of any publication, scholarly or otherwise; or for any purpose other than teaching or research. Publication of an image from the Licensed Software requires a separate license from Saskia. (c) Licensee agrees not to resell, lease, transfer, sub-license or otherwise distribute a copy of the Licensed Software, or any image taken from the Licensed Software, in whole or in part. (d) Licensee also agrees not to modify, corrupt or alter any digital image graphic content or "digital watermark" or the like in the software provided by Saskia under this Agreement. (e) Licensee agrees not to remove, alter, cover or distort Saskia's copyright notice, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice placed by Saskia in the Licensed Software itself, or in the associated packaging, media or documentation. (f) And Licensee agrees to notify users of the Licensed Software, in writing or by sign-on screen display, of their obligations under this Agreement and solicit their cooperation and compliance with such obligations.
Work Rights (display):
public domain
Terms of Agreement and Conditions of Use:
YOU AGREE: Luna Imaging's Insight Software and the digital image collection associated with it (the Software) are being provided by the University of Colorado under the following license. By obtaining, using, and/or copying this work, you (the Licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions. 1. The Software contains the University of Colorado's Department of Art and Art History's implementation of a digital image collection; 2. Any images obtained through use of the Software will be used only for non-profit, educational purposes; 3. The use of images obtained through the software will only be used while the Licensee is either: a) an employee of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver, or b) an enrolled student at the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver; 4. When the Licensee is no longer an employee or student of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or Community College of Denver, either by an action of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or the Community College of Denver or due to actions of the Licensee, the licensee will cease to use any images exported from the Department of Art and Art History's digital image collection; 5. The Licensee agrees to indemnify the University for claims and liability arising out of the use of the Software or for any violations of this license; 6. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SUPPLIES THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
CU Copyright Statement:
The contents of the University of Colorado Digital Library are available for your use in research, teaching, and private study. Some of these items are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and some items may have additional restrictions. If you use the items in this collection, make sure you abide by any restrictions stated in the descriptive data window. The nature of these collections often makes it difficult to determine the copyright status of an item. We have made every effort to provide information about copyright owners and other restrictions in the descriptive data window. Ultimately, however, it is your responsibility to use the item according to the terms governing its use. If you are a copyright holder and the information is either not listed or listed incorrectly, please let us know so that we can update the information on our site.
Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see