Two women in the garden with fountain 1905

Paula Modersohn-Becker made this oil painting of women in a garden sometime in her short lifetime, approaching the subject with an earthy palette. Look at the way she’s applied the paint, almost like fresco, in thin layers of dry brush strokes. The colours are muted, pinks and greens, creating a sense of quietude, like a dream or distant memory. It’s interesting how she’s constructed the garden in simplified forms, almost childlike, emphasizing the flatness of the picture plane. Notice the fountain's vertical thrust, juxtaposed with the rounded shapes of the trees and the enclosing hedge. The surface has a matte quality, with little to no impasto, and this makes the piece feel very immediate and accessible. The whole composition has a kind of naive charm. Modersohn-Becker’s work reminds me a little of Rousseau, or maybe even some of the early German Expressionists, folks who were similarly interested in stripping away the conventions of academic painting to reveal a more primal emotional truth. It's all about process, feeling, and seeing the world anew.