Kind zwischen Bäumen (Child Among Trees)

Accession Number
2000/2.176

Title
Kind zwischen Bäumen (Child Among Trees)

Artist(s)
Paula Modersohn-Becker

Object Creation Date
circa 1905

Medium & Support
black chalk on medium thick cream laid paper

Dimensions
8 5/16 x 9 1/4 in. (21 x 23.4 cm);19 3/8 x 14 3/8 in. (49.2 x 36.5 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Herbert Barrows

Label copy
IMarch 28, 2009
In 1897 Paula Becker first visited the artists’ colony in Worpswede, twenty miles north of Bremen, with which she would be associated for the remaining ten years of her life. Influenced by the German Romantics, the “Worpsweders,” co-founded by her future husband Otto Modersohn, dedicated themselves to an anti-academic, anti-industrial philosophy that looked to the surrounding rural landscape and inhabitants for inspiration. During her short life, Modersohn-Becker produced a remarkable body of work: over five hundred paintings and almost twice as many drawings, many of which focus upon a single human form as the subject.
In this work, a small child seated with its hands in its lap stares out at the viewer amid a forest of birch trees. This composition, characteristic of the artist’s style during this period, is free from anecdotal detail. The austere setting and clean line convey a simplicity that illuminates the fixed gaze of the child. It is at once a look that suggests vulnerability and a deeper inner resolve. True to Modersohn-Becker’s representations of the rural people in the north, this work, with its paparing down to essentials, evokes a compassionate humanity.

Subject matter
In 1897 Paula Becker first visited the artists’ colony in Worpswede, twenty miles north of Bremen, with which she would be associated for the remaining ten years of her life. Influenced by the German Romantics, the "Worpsweders," co-founded by her future husband Otto Modersohn, dedicated themselves to an anti-academic, anti-industrial philosophy that looked to the surrounding rural landscape and its inhabitants for inspiration.
During her short life, Modersohn-Becker produced a remarkable body of work: over five hundred paintings and almost twice as many drawings, many of which focus upon a single human form as the subject. In this work, a small child seated with its hands in its lap stares out at the viewer amid a forest of birch trees. This composition, characteristic of the artist’s style during this period, is free from anecdotal detail. The austere setting and clean line convey a simplicity that works to illuminate the fixed gaze of the child. It is at once a look that suggests vulnerability as well as a deeper inner resolve. True to Modersohn-Becker’s representations of the rural people in the north, this work, with its paring down to essentials, evokes a compassionate humanity.

Physical Description
Drawing featuring a small child seated with its hands in its lap stares out at the viewer amid a forest of birch trees.

Primary Object Classification
Drawing

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
Portraits
bust-length
child
children (people by age group)
half-length
seated
self-portrait
sketches
trees
woods

& Author Notes

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