Life and Work
Paula Becker was born and grew up in Dresden-Friedrichstadt. She was the third child of seven children in her family. Her father, who was the son of a Russian university professor, was employed with the German railway. He and Paula's mother, who was from an aristocratic family, provided the children a cultured and intellectual environment in the house hold.
In 1888 her parents moved from Dresden to Bremen. While visiting an aunt in London, England, she received her first instruction in drawing. In the spring of 1893 Paula Becker saw pictures from the artists' circle of Worpswede for the first time: Otto Modersohn, Fritz Mackensen, Fritz Overbeck and Heinrich Vogeler presented their paintings in the Kunsthalle Bremen. Apart from her teacher's training in Bremen in 1893-1895, Paula took private instruction in painting. In 1896 she participated in a course for painting and drawing sponsored by the "Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen" (Union of Berlin Female Artists) which offered art studies to women.
At the age of 22, she encountered the artistic community of Worpswede. In this "village", artists such as Fritz Mackensen (1866-1953) and Heinrich Vogeler (1872-1942) had retreated to protest against the domination of the art academy and life in the big city. At Worpswede, Paula Modersohn-Becker took painting lessons from Mackensen. The main subjects were the life of the farmers and the northern German landscape. At this time she began close friendships with the sculptor Clara Westhoff (1875-1954) and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926).
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