Paula Modersohn-Becker
Paula Modersohn-Becker
1876 - 1907
Sitzendes Mädchen, den Kopf auf die rechte Hand gestützt. Ca. 1903.
Oil on cardboard.
Inscibed and titled “Kind” (Child) by a hand other than the artist’s on a label on the reverse. 70.5 x 42 cm (27.7 x 16.5 in).
Recorded as no. 61 in the handwritten inventory list compiled by Otto Modersohn in 1921. Otto Modersohn drew up this list of paintings and drawings following the exhibition of works still in his estate at the Kunsthalle Bremen that same year. [CH].
• WANTED Alongside her self-portraits, the children’s portraits rank among the artist’s key works and her most sought-after pieces on the international auction market.
• MOTIF A particularly important motif: the figure in nature characterizes her late artistic career and led to some of her most outstanding works.
• PROVENANCE Part of a private Northern German collection for 80 years.
• 150. BIRTHDAY In 2026, the artist will be honored with highly anticipated exhibitions, including “Becoming Paula” at the Museen Böttcherstraße in Bremen and “Paula Modersohn-Becker and Edvard Munch” at the Albertinum in Dresden.
• PREMIERE In 2024, the Neue Galerie in New York showed Modersohn-Becker’s
first solo museum exhibition in the United States.
PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate / Otto Modersohn (1865-1943), Worpswede/Fischerhude.
Philine Vogeler, Worpswede.
presumably Franz Hörhager, Hamburg.
Carl Emil Spiegel/Kunsthandlung Franz Leuwer, Bremen (acquired from the above, with the label on the reverse).
Manfred Hausmann Collection, Bremen (acquired from the above in 1947).
In the family’s possession ever since.
EXHIBITION: Paula Modersohn-Becker (Memorial Exhibition), Kunsthalle Bremen, April through May 1920, cat. no. 692 (Journal of the Bremen Kunsthalle).
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907), Kunsthalle Bremen, May through June 1947, addendum, cat. no. 1.
Deutscher Expressionismus (special exhibition as part of the permanent exhibition “Wien 1900,” Leopold Museum, Vienna, June through October 2024.
LITERATURE: Günter Busch, Milena Schicketanz, Wolfgang Werner, Paula Modersohn-Becker 1876–1907. Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, vol. II, Munich 1998, CR no. 420 (illustrated in black and white on p. 291).
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Gustav Pauli, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Munich 1922, CR no. 56a (titled “Sitzendes Bauernmädchen”).
Christa Murken-Altrogge, Paula Modersohn-Becker: Leben und Werk, Cologne 1980 (illustrated in color on plate 16).
"An iconoclast in her own time, Modersohn-Becker is today considered an icon of modernity."
Neue Galerie, New York, https://www.neuegalerie.org/collection/modersohnbecker2024
Paula Modersohn-Becker
1876 - 1907
Sitzendes Mädchen, den Kopf auf die rechte Hand gestützt. Ca. 1903.
Oil on cardboard.
Inscibed and titled “Kind” (Child) by a hand other than the artist’s on a label on the reverse. 70.5 x 42 cm (27.7 x 16.5 in).
Recorded as no. 61 in the handwritten inventory list compiled by Otto Modersohn in 1921. Otto Modersohn drew up this list of paintings and drawings following the exhibition of works still in his estate at the Kunsthalle Bremen that same year. [CH].
• WANTED Alongside her self-portraits, the children’s portraits rank among the artist’s key works and her most sought-after pieces on the international auction market.
• MOTIF A particularly important motif: the figure in nature characterizes her late artistic career and led to some of her most outstanding works.
• PROVENANCE Part of a private Northern German collection for 80 years.
• 150. BIRTHDAY In 2026, the artist will be honored with highly anticipated exhibitions, including “Becoming Paula” at the Museen Böttcherstraße in Bremen and “Paula Modersohn-Becker and Edvard Munch” at the Albertinum in Dresden.
• PREMIERE In 2024, the Neue Galerie in New York showed Modersohn-Becker’s
first solo museum exhibition in the United States.
PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate / Otto Modersohn (1865-1943), Worpswede/Fischerhude.
Philine Vogeler, Worpswede.
presumably Franz Hörhager, Hamburg.
Carl Emil Spiegel/Kunsthandlung Franz Leuwer, Bremen (acquired from the above, with the label on the reverse).
Manfred Hausmann Collection, Bremen (acquired from the above in 1947).
In the family’s possession ever since.
EXHIBITION: Paula Modersohn-Becker (Memorial Exhibition), Kunsthalle Bremen, April through May 1920, cat. no. 692 (Journal of the Bremen Kunsthalle).
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907), Kunsthalle Bremen, May through June 1947, addendum, cat. no. 1.
Deutscher Expressionismus (special exhibition as part of the permanent exhibition “Wien 1900,” Leopold Museum, Vienna, June through October 2024.
LITERATURE: Günter Busch, Milena Schicketanz, Wolfgang Werner, Paula Modersohn-Becker 1876–1907. Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, vol. II, Munich 1998, CR no. 420 (illustrated in black and white on p. 291).
- -
Gustav Pauli, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Munich 1922, CR no. 56a (titled “Sitzendes Bauernmädchen”).
Christa Murken-Altrogge, Paula Modersohn-Becker: Leben und Werk, Cologne 1980 (illustrated in color on plate 16).
"An iconoclast in her own time, Modersohn-Becker is today considered an icon of modernity."
Neue Galerie, New York, https://www.neuegalerie.org/collection/modersohnbecker2024
