Two women in the garden with fountain 1905

Paula Modersohn-Becker painted *Two women in the garden with fountain* with oil on canvas, and the warm earth tones are like a comforting embrace. Just look at the way she layered those pigments, one over the other, a real dance of color and light. I can almost feel Paula standing before the canvas, brush in hand, trying to capture the essence of the scene before her. What was she thinking as she daubed at the canvas? There’s something raw and honest about the brushstrokes. She’s not trying to fool anyone with fancy realism, but something more simple than that: feeling. The paint is applied so directly, you can see the hand of the artist in every stroke. It is the painter thinking aloud! That fountain, with its delicate spout of water, it reminds me of that Brancusi sculpture. Both are working from something they see toward something they imagine. And look at those trees on the horizon, each one a distinct personality in the composition.