Paula Modersohn-Becker : The First Modern Woman Artist

Considered one of the most important of the early German modernists,Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) challenged traditional representations of the female body in art. She was the first modern woman artist to paint herself nude, and created the first self-portrait while pregnant in the history of art.

This monograph studies the artist's life and career, highlighting her friendships with poet Rainer Maria Rilke and sculptor Clara Rilke-Westhoff as well as her personal anguish and detailing the genres of her work: figure (especially nudes), still life, and landscape.