Girls at the birch tree and flock of sheep in the background 1903

Paula Modersohn-Becker painted “Girls at the birch tree and flock of sheep in the background” with oil on canvas. Look at the dreamy girl painted with thick, earthy strokes, leaning against the cool, papery birch. You can almost feel the texture of the bark. Those sheep in the background, they're not just sheep, are they? They're these sort of woolly thoughts wandering around in the back of her mind. I imagine Paula standing in front of the canvas, smearing and layering, trying to capture that feeling of being utterly, quietly present in the world. Maybe she was thinking about Cezanne, about how to make something solid out of fleeting moments. There’s this incredible connection between her body, the birch tree, and the earth. Her simple red dress feels grounded against the grey-green-white palette, anchoring her figure into the landscape. Painters, we're always in conversation with each other, stealing and borrowing and transforming. It’s like Modersohn-Becker is whispering across time, saying, "Hey, let's make something real, something felt."