Paula Modersohn-Becker / AWARE
Young German Paula Modersohn-Becker once painted himself naked. One of his emotional portraits. This painting was made during her sixth anniversary and also a year before she died.

In the painting Paula Modersohn-Becker wrote an olive-green inscription on the bottom right corner of the canvas. He marked the painting with the initials "PB", for Paula Becker, his maiden name, ignoring Modersohn, the name he got when married.

Paula Modersohn-Becker was 30 years old as she described herself on May 25, 1906. The woman who was born in 1876 and died in 1907, married to Otto Modersohn, an academic painter 10 years her senior.

In his unclothing painting, Paula Modersohn-Becker paints not just a naked self-portrait but a liberation declaration. Not only from bond and marriage duties. But as a picture of what he felt at the time.

The painting depicts Paula Modersohn-Becker pregnant (pregnant), but in fact he is not pregnant in the painting. A few months earlier he had made it clear he did not want to have children, especially with Otto.

Independent.co.uk said the painting itself naked is a metaphor for himself as a young artist. Which for the first time in his life he can create and paint freely according to his wishes.

Freedom

The intention is like being pregnant is not childbearing, but adult self, independent, and artistic. Nude paintings are generally disguised to avoid the "bad" gaze of the men. But in his paintings, Paula Modersohn-Becker actually created a new form, the painting seemed to want to express a woman who can protect himself from the "trap" of marriage. Describes women who do not need men to complete it.

In the end, Paula Modersohn-Becker's painting leads to the equality of relationships between male and female painter. During this time women made sexual objects and is a model (painting) that can be purchased with money. The thing that became the opinion of the male painters at the time. But through her own naked painting, Paula Modersohn-Becker denied it. Imaginary portraits implicitly show high self-esteem.

In this painting, there is no object of sexual exploitation and the deprivation of the right to self as a woman who may be "colonized" like a painting made by male artists depicting the gaze of a kososng woman. What he painted depicts a woman who dared to look straight and fearless. Paula Modersohn-Becker gave birth to her new self-expression without fear and artistic value. She was among the first female painter to exploit the problem.

Paula Modersohn-Becker fainted from embolism and died a few weeks after the birth of his daughter. That was a year later in 1907 after the painting was made. Therefore this painting is like a sharp "shadow" painting. Paula Modersohn-Becker was the first female painter to paint herself naked.

Childhood Paula Modersohn-Becker

Born in 1876, the childhood of Paula Modersohn-Becker coincided with the so-called national debate about women's access to higher education and the liberal profession. Paula's father Modersohn-Becker supports his education and wants his daughter then considers his daughter Paula Modersohn-Becker to be married.

The father encourages his sons and daughters to live independently despite criticism. Paula Modersohn-Becker attended art and education classes. He attended the drawing and painting academy run by the Women's Artist Association, where Kathe Kollwitz studied.

Paula Modersohn-Becker sets the subject of his notion in the historical and sociological context. But it also draws a picture of people directly related to Paula Modersohn-Becker himself.