PAULA MODERSOHN-BECKER, het quotes on painting art and life in Worpswede and Paris, by the German woman-artist
Paula Modersohn Becker (1876 – 1907), life and art quotes from her diary and letters by the German woman-artist and painter from Worpswede. The selected artist quotes by Paula Modersohn clarify her development as a woman artist from Impressionism towards a personal, intuitive early Expressionism. In North Germany Paula Modersohn Becker started landscape painting and portraits. Later in Paris her colors became more bright in strong forms – she admired Cézanne‘s art and Matisse. At the bottom more biography facts and useful art links for Paula Modersohn – the editor.
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Paula Modersohn: ‘The Pram’, 1904 |
Paula Modersohn-Becker, quotes on painting art and artist life as a woman in early German Expressionism in Worpswede
- Worpswede, Worpswede, Worpswede (the village in North Germany were a colony of artists was working, fh)! My sunken Bell mood! Birches, birches, pine trees and old willows. Beautiful brown moors – exquisite brown! The canals with their black reflections, black as asphalt…
* Paula Modersohn Becker, source of her quote on Worpswede: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 192 ( great German woman artist; her art quotes about life & creating paintings )
- Worpswede, Worpswede, I cannot get you out of my mind. There was such atmosphere there – right down to the tips of your toes. Your magnificent pine trees! I call them my men – thick, gnarled, powerful, and tall – and yet with the most delicate nerves and fibers in them. That is my image of the ideal artist. And your birch trees – delicate, slender young virgins who delight the eyes. With that relaxed and dreamy face, as if life had not really begun for them… … But then there are some already masculine and bold, with strong and straight trunks. Those are my ‘Modern women’. And you willows, with your knotty trunks… …You are my old men with silver beards. I have company enough, indeed I do, and it’s my own private company. We understand each other well and nod friendly answers back and forth. Life, life, life!
* Paula Modersohn Becker, quote on Worpswede where she then works and lives, from: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 192.
- I sketched a young mother with her child at her breast, sitting in a smoky hut. If only I could someday paint what I felt then. A sweet woman, an image of charity. She was nursing her big, year-old bambino… …And the woman gave her life and her youth and her power tot the child in utter simplicity, unaware that she was a heroine.
*source of her painter quote: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 193.
- The journal of Marie Bashkirtseff (a female painter born in the Ukraine, who died very young; her journal was published around 1897, fh). Her thoughts enter my bloodstream and make me very sad. I say as she doers: if only I could accomplish something! My existence seems humiliating to me. We don’t have the right to strut around, not until we’ve made something of ourselves.
* Paula Modersohn Becker on her perosnal situation, from: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 193.
- My blonde was here again today. This time with her little boy at her breast. I had to draw her as a mother, had to. That is her single true purpose. Marvelous, these gleaming white breasts in her fiery red blouse. The whole thing is so grand in its shape and color…
* quote on some figures which she painted: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 193.
- I think I’m getting into the real mood and atmosphere of Worpswede now. What I used to call my Sunken Bell mood, the spell I was under when I first got here, was sweet, very sweet – but it was really only a dream, and one that couldn’t last long in any sort of active life. Then came the reaction to it, and after that something truer – serious work and serious living for my art, a battle I must fight with all my strength. I am filled with the sun, every part of me, and with the breezy air, intoxicated with the moonlight on the bright snow… ..Nature was speaking with me and I listened to her, happy and vibrant. Life.
* Paula Modersohn Becker; source of her quote on the influence of the location Woprswede: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, pp. 193-194.
- Nature is supposed to become greater to me than people. It ought to speak louder from me. I should feel small in the face of nature’s enormity. That is the way Mackensen (her teacher, a painter in Worpswede, fh) thinks it should be. That is the alpha and omega of all critique. What I should learn, he says, is a more devout representation of nature. It seems that I let my own insignificant person step to the forefront too much.
* source of her quote on the impact by Nature for her painting art, from: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, pp. 193-194 ( famous German woman artist; her art quotes about life & creating paintings )
- I became aware of something today when I was with Fräulein Weshoff (Clara Westhof, woman sculptor, who married later the poet Rilke, fh) I should like to have her as a friend. She is grand and splendid to look at – and that’s the way she is as a person and as an artist. Today we raced down the hill on our little sleds. It was such fun.
* source on Clara Westhof, the woman-sculptor: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 194.
- If I could really paint! A month ago I was so sure of what I wanted. Inside me I saw it out there, walked around with it like a queen, and was blissful. Now the veils have fallen again, gray veils, hiding the whole idea of me. I stand like a beggar at the door, shivering in the cold, pleading to be let in. It is hard to move patiently, step by step, when one is young and demanding…. …I walk along the boulevards and crowds of people pass by and something inside me cries out, ‘I still have such beautiful things before me. None of you, not one, has such things’ And then it cries, ‘When will it come? Soon?
* Paula Modersohn Becker on het inspiration during her stay in Paris: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 19.
- I have been depressed for days. Profoundly sad and solemn. I think the time is coming for struggle and uncertainty. It comes into every serious and beautiful life. I knew all along that it had to come. I’ve been expecting it. I am not afraid of it. I know it will mature and help me develop. But everything seems so serious and so hard, serious and sad to me. I walk through this huge city (Paris, fh) I look into a thousand thousand eyes. But I almost never find a soul there… …And beneath it all flows the Styx (the Seine probably, fh), deep and slow, knowing nothing of these brooks and wells of ours (from the people’s voices she hears, fh). I am sad. And all around me ate the heavy, pregnant, perfumed breezes of spring
* source on her depressed mood in Paris: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 195.
- As I was painting today, some thoughts came to me and I want to write them down for people I love. I know that I shall not live very long. But I wonder, is that sad? Is a celebration more beautiful because it lasts longer? And my life is a celebration, a short, intense celebration. My powers of perception are becoming finer… …with almost every breeze I take, I get a new sense and understanding of the linden tree, of ripened wheat, of hay… …I suck everything up into me. And if only now love would blossom for me, before I depart; and if I can paint three good pictures, then I shall go gladly, with flowers in my hair…
* Paula Modersohn Becker; source of her quote on her personal thoughts, from an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 196.
- Someday I must be able to paint truly remarkable colors. Yesterday I held in my lap a wide, silver-gray satin ribbon, which I edged with two narrower black, patterned silk ribbons. And I placed on top of these a plump, bottle-green velvet bow. I’d like to be able to paint something one day in those colors….
* quote on colors: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1897; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 196.
- I believe that one should not think about nature in painting pictures. At least not during the process of conceiving the image. An oil sketch should be made just according to the way one once felt something in nature. But my own personal feeling, that is the main thing. Once I have got that pinned down, clear in its form and color, only then do I introduce things from nature which will make my picture have a natural; effect, so that a layman will be totally convinced that I painted my picture from nature.
*quote on the role of Nature: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1898; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 197.
- Recently I have felt just what the mood of colors means to me: it means that everything in this picture changes its local color according to the same principle and that thereby all muted tones blend in a unified relationship , one to the other.
* Paula Modersohn Becker, quote on the mood of colors, in Paris: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 24 July 1898; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 197
- I was reading about and looking at Mantegna (Italian early-Renaissance painter, fh). I can sense how good he is for me. His enormous plasticity – it has such powerful substance. That is just what is lacking in my things. I could do something about that if I could add his substantiality to the greatness of form I’m struggling for. At present I see before my eyes very simple and barely articulated things. My second major stumbling is my lack of intimacy. Mackensen’s (her former teacher, a painter from Worpswede, fh) way of portraying the people here is not great enough for me, too genre like. Whoever could, ought to capture them in runic script…
* source of her quote on plasticity and Mantegna: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1898; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 197
- Today I saw an exhibition of old Japanese paintings and sculpture. I was seized by the great strangeness of these things. It makes our own art seem all the more conventional to me. Our art is very meager in expressing the emotions we have inside. Old Japanese art seems to have a better solution for that… …We must put more weight on the fundamentals!! When I took my eyes from these pictures and began looking at the people around me, I suddenly saw that human being are more remarkable, much more striking and surprising than they have been painted. A sudden realization like that comes only at moments.
* Paula Modersohn Becker on her visit of Japanese art, from: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1898; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 197
- I must learn how to express the gentle vibration of things, their roughened textures, their intricacies. I have to find an expression for that in my drawing, too, in the way I sketched my nudes here in Paris, only more original, more subtly observed. The strange quality of expectation that hovers over muted things (skin, Otto’s (Modernsohn) (her husband, fh) forehead, fabrics, flowers); I must try to get hold of the great and simple beauty of all that. In general, I must strive for the utmost simplicity united with the most intimate power of observation. That’s where greatness lies.
* Paula Modersohn Becker on the vibration of things: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1898; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, pp. 197-198.
- I am constantly observing things and believe that I am coming closer to beauty. In the lat few days I have discovered form and have been thinking much about it. Until now I’ve had no real feeling for the antique. I could find it very beautiful by itself. But I could never find any thread leading from it to modern art. Now I’ve found it, and that’s what I believe is called progress.
* source of her quote on painting and beauty, froms: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1899; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 198.
- I feel an inner relationship which leads from the antique tot the Gothic, especially from the early ancient art, and from the Gothic to my own feeling for form. A great simplicity of form is something marvelous. As far back as I can remember, I have tried to put the simplicity of nature into the heads that I was painting or drawing. Now I have a real sense of being able to learn from the heads of ancient sculpture….
* Paula Modersohn Becker, quote from: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1899; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 198.
- The intensity with which a subject is grasped (still lifes, portraits, or creations of the imagination) – that is what makes for beauty in art.
* her quote on beauty and intensity, in: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1899; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 198.
- Last year I wrote: the intensity with which a subject is grasped, that is what makes for beauty in art. Isn’t it also true for love?
* Paula Modersohn Becker, contemplating on love in art and life, in: an excerpt of her Journal, Worpswede 1899; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991.
-…I really see nothing of other people. I’m trying to dig my way back again into my work. One absolutely has to dedicate oneself, every bit of oneself, to the one inescapable thing. That’s the only way to get somewhere and to become something.
* quote on her isolated way of living in Paris: a letter to her parents, Worpswede, 10 September 1899; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 199.
- I’ve made use of the beautiful weather to sketch and paint outside. I had been staying away from color for such a long time that it had become something quite foreign to me. Working in color was always a great joy to me. And now it is a great joy again. Still, I have to battle with it, wrestle with it, with all my strength. And one must be victorious. But if it weren’t for the fight, all the beauty of it wouldn’t exist at all, would it? I’m writing this mostly for Mother who, I believe, thinks my whole life is one constant act of egoistic ecstasy. But devotion to art also involves something unselfish.
* Paula Modersohn Becker, on a day of making sketches and painting in Paris, quote from: a letter to her parents, Worpswede, 10 September 1899; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 199.
- …I’m going through a strange period now. Maybe the most serious of all my short life. I can see that my goals are becoming more and more remote from those of the family, and that you and they will be less and less inclined to approve of them… …And still I must go on. I must not retreat. I struggle forward, just as all of you do, but I’m doing it within my own mind, my own skin, and in the way I think is right. I’m little frightened by my loneliness in my unguarded hours. But personally those are the very hours that help me along toward my goal. You needn’t show this letter to our parents.
* source of her quote from a letter to her sister: a letter to her sister Milly, Worpswede, 21 September 1899; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 199 ( famous German woman artist; her art quotes about life & creating paintings )
- My art is going well. I have a feeling of satisfaction about it. Afternoons I stroll around the city (Paris, fh) taking a good look at everything and trying to absorb it all… …I went back to the Notre Dame again. Such wonderful Gothic detailing, those monstrous gargoyles, each one with its own character and face… …Directly behind Notre Dame, almost encircled by the Seine, lies the morgue. Day after day they fish corpses from the river here, people who don’t want to get on living.
* Paula Modersohn Becker, observating dark life side in Paris: a letter to her sister Milly, Paris, 29 February 1900; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 200.
- Please let your “hot-blooded iconoclasm” slumber a bit longer, and for a while permit me simply to be your Madonna. It’s meant to be for your own good, do you believe that? Keep your mind on art, our gracious muse, dear. Let us both plan to paint all this week. And then early Saturday I shall come to you.
* Paula Modersohn Becker: from a letter to her husband Otto Modersohn, after 12 September 1900; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 200.
- Is it true that all I ever write you about is painting and nothing else? Isn’t there love in my lines to you and between the lines, shining and glowing and quiet and loving, the way a woman should love and the way your woman loves you?….
* quote on the letters to her husband: a letter to her husband Otto Modersohn, Berlin, 4 February 1901; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 201.
- …In the last few days I have been thinking very intensively about my art and I believe that things are progressing for me. I even think that I’m beginning to have a liaison with the sun. Not with the sun that divides everything up and puts shadows in everywhere and plucks the image into a thousand pieces, but with the sun that broods and makes things gray and heavy and combines them all in this gray heaviness so that they become one. I’m thinking about all of that very much and it lives within me besides my great love. A time has come when I think that I shall again be able to say something [in my painting] one day; I am again devout and full of expectation….
* source of her remarkable quote on the sun and her hope: a letter to her friend, the sculptress Clara Rilke-Westhoff, Worpswede, 13 May 1901; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 201.
- …Isn’t love thousandfold? Isn’t it like the sun that shines on everything? Must love be stingy? Must love give everything to one person and take from the others… …I don’t know much about the two of you; but it seems to me that you have shed too much of your old self and spread it out like a cloak so that your king (the poet Rilke, fh) can walk on it. I wish for your sake and for the world and for art (Clara is sculptress, fh) and also for my sake that you would wear your own golden cape again…
* Paula Modersohn Becker, her quote from: a letter to her friend Clara Rilke-Westhoff, Worpswede, 13 May 1901; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 202 ( famous German woman artist; her art quotes about life & creating paintings )
- …Mother, the dawn has broken in me and I can feel the day approaching. I’m going to become somebody. If only I had been able to show Father that my life has not been fishing in troubled waters, pointless; if only I had been able to repay him for the part of himself that he planted in me! I feel that the time is soon coming when I no longer have to be ashamed and remain silent, but when I feel with pride that I am a painter…
* source of her quote on personal grow as an artist, from: a letter to her mother, Worpswede, 6 July 1902; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 202.
- Night and day I’ve been most intensely thinking about my painting, and I have been more or less satisfied with everything I’ve done. I’m slacking a little now, not working as much, and no longer so satisfied. But all in all, I still have a loftier and happier perspective on my art than I did in Worpswede. But it does demand a very, very great deal of me – working and sleeping in the same room with my paintings is a delight… …When I wake up in the middle of the night, I jump out of bed and look at my work. And in the morning it’s the first thing I see -….
* Paula Modersohn Becker, quote on her relation between life and art: a letter to her husband Otto Modersohn, Paris, 15 May 1906; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 20.
- This past summer I realized that I am not the sort of woman to stand alone in life. Apart from the eternal worries about money, it is precisely the freedom I have had which was able to lure me away from myself. I would so much like to get to the point where I can create something that is me. It is up to the future to determine for us whether I’m acting bravely or not. The main thing now is peace and quiet for my work, and I have that most of all when I am at Otto Modersohn’s side.
* quote on being a woman and artist: a letter to her friend Clara Rilke-Westhoff, Worpswede, 17 November 1906; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 206.
- The review was more a satisfaction to me than a joy. Joy, overpoweringly beautiful moments, comes to an artist without other noticing. The same is true for moments of sadness. That’s why it is true that artists live mostly in solitude… Otto and I shall be coming home again in the spring. That man is touching in his love. We are going to try to buy the Brünjes place in order to make our lives together freer and more open… …If the dear Lord will allow me once again to create something beautiful, then I shall be happy and satisfied; if only I have a place where I can work in peace. I will be grateful for the portion of love I’ve received. If one can remain healthy and not die too young…
* Paula Modersohn Becker, quote from her: letter to her sister Milly, Paris, 18 November 1906; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 206.
- What I want to produce is something compelling, something full, an excitement and intoxication of color – something powerful. The paintings I did in Paris are too cool, too solitary and empty. They are the reaction to a restless and superficial period in my life and seem to strain for a simple, grand effect. I wanted to conquer Impressionism by trying to forget it. What happened was that it conquered me. We must work with digested and assimilated Impressionism…
* her quote on rfeaching beyond impressionism, in: a letter to Bernhard Hoetger, Paris, Summer 1907; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 207.
- My mind has been so much occupied these days by the thought of Cézanne, of how he has been one of the three or four powerful artists who have affected me like a thunderstorm, like some great event. Do you still remember what we saw at Vollard (had a gallery in Paris where he showed Cézanne’s works frequently, fh) in 1900? And then, during the final days of my last stay in Paris, those truly astonishing early paintings of his at the Galerie Pellerin. Tell your husband (7 October 1907 Rilke started to write his famous series ‘Letters on Cézanne’ to his wife Clara Rilke-Westhoff, fh) he should see the things there… …If it were not absolutely necessary (Paula was pregnant, fh) for me to be here right now, nothing could keep me away from Paris.
* Paula Modersohn Becker rfers ro Rilke and Cezanne in her quote: a letter to her friend Clara Rilke-Westhoff, Worpswede, October 21, 1907; as quoted in ‘Voicing our visions, -Writings by women artists’; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 208.
Unsourced artist quotes by German woman-artist Paula Modersohn Becker
- Today I painted my first plain air portrait at the clay pit, a little blond and blue-eyed girl. The way the little thing stood in the yellow sand was simply beautiful – a bright and shimmering thing to see. It made my heart leap. Painting people is indeed more beautiful than painting a landscape; Worpswede 24 July 1897.
- Strange. It seems to me as if my voice had completely new tones to it (in portraying/ painting, fh), and as if my being had new registers. I can feel things growing greater in me, expanding. God willing, I will become something; Worpswede 1 December 1902
short biography facts on German woman painter Paula Modersohn Becker
Paula Modersohn Becker was a German woman artist and painter, living at the end of the 19th century when many starting artists were trying to overcome Impressionism in several ways. Paula attributed by her art a lot to early German Expressionism which would later be continued in ‘Die Brücke’ with Kirchner, Heckel and Smith-Rotluf and Blaue Reiter in Munich, especially because of Paula’s strong emphasis on ‘form’.< /p>
At the age of 22, Paula encountered the painter community in Worpswede, a village where artists lived and worked together, making art in relative isolation of the modern world. Paula’s main subjects in Worpswede were the farmers, especially the children, women, and the Northern German landscape. Paula married later with the Worpswede-painter Otto Modersohn and began close friendships with sculptress Clara Westhoff and her husband, the famous German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
Between 1900 and 1907, Paula Modersohn Becker made as a curious woman painter several extended trips to Paris mostly living and painting there separately from her husband. She visited the contemporary exhibitions and was particularly inspired by the late work of Paul Cezanne; also Fauvism / Matisse had a temporarily a strong influence on her painting. During her last trip to Paris in 1906, she produced a body of paintings and painted also her nude self-portraits. In 1907 Paula returned to her husband in Worpswede and soon her daughter Mathilde was born there; a few weeks later Paula died suddenly.
art links for art information on the German woman artist Paula Modersohn Becker, + biography facts
* biography of the German woman painter Paula Modersohn Becker on Wikipedia
