Landscape with Birch trunks 1901

Paula Modersohn-Becker made this painting of birch trunks with oil on canvas. The paint handling here is so earnest, so matter-of-fact. You can tell she's thinking hard about each brushstroke, about how one color meets another. It's artmaking as a form of investigation. Up close, the surface has all this lovely texture, especially in the way the light catches those birch trunks. The brushwork is direct, almost blunt. See the way she renders the sky with these gentle blues and whites? It's like she's trying to capture the feeling of the open air, not just its appearance. Look at how she applies these little dashes of color to suggest the rough bark. The dark, almost black, markings feel very gestural and present. Modersohn-Becker's work reminds me a bit of Van Gogh, in that they both have this intense commitment to the act of painting itself. Like she is searching for something beyond the surface. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation.