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Source Description
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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
147525
label
Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?)
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
147525
contentType
drawing
title
Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?)
description
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.
date
c. 1899
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79926751
creators
12098
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 62.2 x 33.9 cm (24 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.)
cul
Germany, 19th century
accession
1973.35
Source extras
tec
charcoal with stumping
tombstone
Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?), c. 1899. Paula Modersohn-Becker (German, 1876–1907). Charcoal with stumping; sheet: 62.2 x 33.9 cm (24 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1973.35
supportMaterials
description
beige(1) modern laid paper
collection
DR - German
inscriptions
inscription
signed, lower left, in black crayon: p.m.b.; verso, sale stamp, lower right, in purple-gray ink: Samml. E. Rump / [pag.?] 102 [underlined] [Nr.?] 2 [underlined] [numerals are written in black ink]; upper center, in graphite: 76 [circled]; lower left, in graphite: 75 [circled, partially erased]; lower right, in black ink: Paula Modersohn Becker
didYouKnow
Paula Modersohn-Becker's career was extremely brief but prolific before dying from complications of childbirth at age 31.
citations
citation
“The Year in Review for 1973.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31–78.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 50; Mentioned: p. 76, no.100
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 240
citation
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 226-27, p. 296; Reproduced: p. 227
citation
Röver-Kann, Anne, and Wolfgang Werner, editors. <em>Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1876-1907: Werkverzeichnis der Handzeichnungen.</em> München: Hirmer Verlag, 2023.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 118-119, no. E II/87, Band I
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:33:59.041000
sourceId
147525
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - German
med
charcoal with stumping
creatorTags
female
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
334df6aec162f456