Two Girls in Front of Birch Trees c. 1905

Paula Modersohn-Becker painted these two girls in front of birch trees with oil on canvas, and what strikes me right away is the directness of the gaze and the earthy palette, making the whole scene feel very present. The texture is quite something; you can see the paint building up, stroke by stroke, almost like she’s sculpting the figures rather than just painting them. Look at the child in the foreground, the way the pink paint seems to glow against the reddish brown of her sweater. Her hand laid flat feels both tender and declarative. It’s like Modersohn-Becker is revealing the girls from the inside out. Her work reminds me of Van Gogh, in the way that both artists use color and texture to convey deep emotion, but Paula has a unique, raw honesty that feels very much of her own. It is a really lovely painting, isn’t it?