Elizabeth with Hens under an Apple Tree 1902

Paula Modersohn-Becker made this painting of Elizabeth with Hens under an Apple Tree with oil on canvas. It's all about greens and browns, with soft, blended strokes that give it this dreamy, almost naive quality. I can imagine Modersohn-Becker standing there, squinting in the light, trying to capture the scene's gentle, bucolic feel. The paint is thin, scrubbed into the canvas, like she's trying to merge the girl with the earth and the sky. Look at the trunk of the apple tree, how it bends and curves like an old woman's back, the leaves and apples suggested with the dab of a brush. It's not about perfect representation; it's about feeling the weight of the tree and the light filtering through. Modersohn-Becker seems to be responding to the same impulses as other painters of the time, like Cezanne, who was making art less about what is depicted than about the act of painting itself. Artists are always in conversation with each other. Painting is about possibility, ambiguity, and change.