Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?)

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 emotional or spiritual state.

A vertically oriented charcoal drawing with smooth blending depicts a nude woman with a light skin tone seated and facing us. Her arms are straight next to her, hands placed on the seat, and her breasts are small. Her left leg crosses over her right leg.

Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?)

c. 1899

Paula Modersohn-Becker

(German, 1876–1907)

Germany, 19th century

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