Girl in a red dress c. 1905

Paula Modersohn-Becker captured this young 'Girl in a Red Dress' with oil on canvas. The ochre and brick-red palette feels earthy and warm. There is an intimacy to the way the girl is depicted, and I get the impression that she is a familiar subject. I can imagine Modersohn-Becker standing before the canvas, squinting her eyes, mixing shades of red, brown, and white, building up the image through layers of brushstrokes. See how the paint is applied thinly, with a visible texture? The vertical brushstrokes in the backdrop create a sense of height, a shallow depth of field that gives the girl a monumental presence. That single, stark branch to the right of the figure feels like a reminder of mortality, a popular motif for the artist. Modersohn-Becker’s direct and expressive painting style resonates with that of Van Gogh, whom she admired. Her work carries on the conversation about expression and representation in painting, the back and forth of ideas across time.