Paula Modersohn-Becker, Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?)
Wade Fund, 1973.35 · The Cleveland Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)View original →
Paula Modersohn-Becker

Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?)

c. 1899

Current Collection

Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Medium
charcoal with stumping
Dimensions
62.2 × 33.9 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-209729

Although Paula Modersohn-Becker died in 1907, just as the Expressionist groups in Dresden and Munich were forming, the themes of her work prefigure the movement. This likely self-portrait exhibits her desire to convey not the idealized appearance of the female body but rather its fundamental essence, stripped of all the world’s trappings. She distilled the human body into flattened forms—achieved by erasing and blending the charcoal—and abbreviated the delineation of the feet, hands, and face. The sitter’s piercing stare invites the viewer to move beyond the body as flesh and blood toward her…

Provenance

Wade Fund, 1973.35

Registry history

  • c. 1899 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art — drawings

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