Landscape with Birch trunks 1901

Paula Modersohn-Becker made this painting of birch trunks sometime during her short life. Look at the painting’s blues and greens – the way the sky meets the earth, and then notice how the birch trees seem to puncture that horizontal plane. I can imagine Paula standing there, looking at those trees, thinking about how to capture their verticality on canvas. The paint application is quite direct, and very material. You can almost feel the brushstrokes and the texture of the paint itself. The way she renders the birch trunks, with their stark white bark marked by black scars, is particularly striking. It is as if the trees bear witness to the passage of time, and Paula is capturing that feeling. I wonder if she was influenced by Van Gogh, or maybe even the German Expressionists. I am interested in how artists are in constant dialogue with each other. Every brushstroke is like a little conversation, a little spark of inspiration passed down through time.