Two girls seated in the birch forest 1905

Paula Modersohn-Becker painted “Two girls seated in the birch forest” with oil on canvas. This piece feels like it's built from the ground up, layer by layer, almost like you could peel away the paint to reveal the secrets underneath. The colors are earthy, like the forest floor, but there's this warmth too, especially in the figures' faces. I’m drawn to the way she renders the folds of the older girl's skirt. It's not about perfect representation; it's about capturing the essence of the form. The brushstrokes are visible, almost chunky, and each one feels like a deliberate decision. It’s like she’s wrestling with the paint, trying to get it just right, and in that struggle, something beautiful emerges. Modersohn-Becker was doing something similar to what Van Gogh did in his portraits of common people. She was interested in the reality of what she saw, rather than some ideal version of it. It's a reminder that art is a conversation, artists borrowing from and building upon each other's ideas, stretching our ways of seeing.