A landscape painting with a birch tree.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The painting show a birch tree in the center, it rises in two trunks from a brown and green foreground to the top of the picture plane. The left trunk shows a branch extending from it to cross the space between the two. The tree is crowned with red, green, and orange leaves. A smaller tree with a white trunk and leaves is behind and to the left. The background is lighter green becoming darker green towards the back and ends with a line of dark trees against a blue sky with thin white clouds.

Gallery Text

The flat terrain, birch trees, and dramatic wide-open skies depicted in these works (2003.4 and 2000.264) are characteristic of Worpswede, a small peasant village near Bremen in northern Germany. It was there in an artist’s colony that Modersohn-Becker, inspired by the region’s rural inhabitants and the simplicity of its landscape, developed her signature “naive” style. Following the teachings at the colony, she applied paint swiftly and directly to the support. With the central position of the birch tree in the scene, she also disrupted a more conventional, picturesque view, while still creating a sense of depth in the small landscape. Girl in a Red Dress (2000.264) derives the strength of its subject from reduced color and simplified forms. Modersohn-Becker’s style, in particular her thickly painted brushstrokes, shows the influence of postimpressionist painters such as Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh, whose work she saw during several extended visits to Paris beginning in 1900. In her short career, Modersohn-Becker’s early pursuit of formal simplification and the sensitivity of her themes made her one of the foremost expressionist painters in Germany.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2003.4
People
Paula Modersohn-Becker, German (Dresden, Germany 1876 - 1907 Worpswede, Germany)
Title
Birch Tree in a Landscape
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Zweistämmige Birke vor Landschaft
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1899
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/97363

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1440, Modern and Contemporary Art, Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on composite board
Dimensions
55.4 x 42.1 cm (21 13/16 x 16 9/16 in.)
framed: 64.6 x 51.4 x 3 cm (25 7/16 x 20 1/4 x 1 3/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: recto, l.l., graphite: 1899
  • label: verso, l.r., ink, handwritten: 31 [above horizontal line] /49090 [below horizontal line]
  • inscription: verso, u.r., beneath backing board, graphite, German: Paula Modersohn-Becker / bestätigt / Otto Modersohn

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Private collection, Bremen, 1930s. [Neumeisters Moderne, Munich, 16 May 2002, lot 636], sold. Busch-Reisinger Museum, 2003.

Note: Neumeisters Moderne (May 16, 2002) catalogue, lot 636, repr. col. p. 149.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Wilhelm Winterstein through the Acquisitions Committee of the Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum in honor of James Cuno on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Museum
Accession Year
2003
Object Number
2003.4
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Günter Busch, Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1876-1907: Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde im Auftrag der Paula Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Hirmer Verlag (Munich, Germany, 1998), #30, repr. p. 41
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 188

Exhibition History

  • Before Expressionism: Art in Germany circa 1903, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/24/2003 - 02/15/2004
  • Re-View: S118 European & American Art since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/13/2008 - 04/09/2011
  • 32Q: 1440 Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin (Expressionism), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu