Standing female nude, her arms located in front of the chest 1905

Paula Modersohn-Becker made this standing nude in oil paint, we don't know exactly when. I wonder how long she looked at this model, working to capture her form in paint. You can see the way she's built up the surface of the painting with earth tones, like the ground itself. The way she's modeled the figure is so interesting – there's a solidity to the torso but it is contrasted with the more lightly articulated arms and hands. The artist captures the model's inward gaze as she looks down, which I find very compelling. It makes me think about what it would be like to be an artist looking so closely at the human body, but also to be the model, standing there, being looked at. Modersohn-Becker was part of a generation of artists who were pushing the boundaries of representation. I see her work as an ongoing experiment with the possibilities of painting – this piece is both an expression and an investigation.