Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter best known for her expressionistic self-portraits, scenes of children with their mothers, and moody landscapes. Painted in rich hues and rough brushstrokes in both oil and tempera, her works contain an undertone of mystery. Born on February 8, 1876 in Dresden-Friedrichstadt, Germany, Modersohn-Becker had her first foray into painting after visiting the Kunsthalle Bremen in 1893. This experience prompted her to seek private instruction at the Union of Berlin Female Artists in 1896. Rejecting the domination of the art academies and the patriarchal dominance of the time, the artist often painted herself and other women nude. In 1901, she married Otto Modersohn, the painter and cofounder of the Worpswede Artist’s Colony. In Worpswede, the artist painted alongside her husband and his peers Fritz Overbeck, Heinrich Vogeler, and Fritz Mackensen. Around this same time, Modersohn-Becker developed a close friendship with Clara Westhof a sculptor and the wife of famed poet Rainer Maria Rilke, she and Westhof travelled to Paris on several occasions to see exhibitions and socialize. Tragically at only 31 years old, her life was cut short due to embolism on November 21, 1907 in Worpswede, Germany. The Paula Becker-Modersohn Museum, a private museum and gallery, opened in Bremen in the autumn of 2007, built in the house where she spent much of her early life. In 2016, Christian Schwochow’s film Paula was released, portraying the artist’s brilliant and brief career. Today, her works are found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.