id: 147525 accession number: 1973.35 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.35 updated: 2021-09-23 09:00:17.388000 Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?), c. 1899. Paula Modersohn-Becker (German, 1876-1907). Charcoal with stumping; sheet: 62.2 x 33.9 cm (24 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1973.35 title: Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1899 creation date earliest: 1894 creation date latest: 1904 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Germany, 19th century technique: charcoal with stumping department: Drawings collection: DR - German type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Paula Modersohn-Becker (German, 1876-1907) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 62.2 x 33.9 cm (24 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: beige(1) modern laid paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: signed, lower left, in black crayon: p.m.b.; verso, sale stamp, lower right, in purple-gray ink: Samml. E. Rump / [pag.?] 102 [underlined] [Nr.?] 2 [underlined] [numerals are written in black ink]; upper center, in graphite: 76 [circled]; lower left, in graphite: 75 [circled, partially erased]; lower right, in black ink: Paula Modersohn Becker translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1973 opening date: 1974-01-30T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974). title: The Vocabulary of Prints opening date: 1975-07-29T04:00:00 The Vocabulary of Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art. title: The Milieu of Edvard Munch opening date: 1977-05-05T04:00:00 The Milieu of Edvard Munch. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 5-June 5, 1977). title: German Drawings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries opening date: 1980-04-01T04:00:00 German Drawings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art (April 1-July 13, 1980). title: Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925 opening date: 1984-06-12T04:00:00 Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-September 9, 1984). title: Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure opening date: 1991-11-05T05:00:00 Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992). title: The German Tradition opening date: 1993-04-27T04:00:00 The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). title: Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2014-03-09T00:00:00 Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). title: Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper opening date: 2018-01-14T05:00:00 Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 14-May 27, 2018). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Ernst Rump [1872-1921], Hamburg date: after 1899-by 1921 footnotes: * Sale stamp on verso. citations: (probably Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, Hamburg, June 1967, no. 1006) date: 1967 footnotes: citations: (Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) date: probably 1967-1973 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1973- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Paula Modersohn-Becker's career was extremely brief but prolific before dying from complications of childbirth at age 31. digital description: Although Paula Modersohn-Becker died in 1907, just as the Expressionist groups in Dresden and Munich were forming, the themes of her work prefigure the movement. This likely self-portrait exhibits her desire to convey not the idealized appearance of the female body but rather its fundamental essence, stripped of all the world’s trappings. She distilled the human body into flattened forms—achieved by erasing and blending the charcoal—and abbreviated the delineation of the feet, hands, and face. The sitter’s piercing stare invites the viewer to move beyond the body as flesh and blood toward her emotional or spiritual state. wall description: Although Paula Modersohn-Becker died in 1907, just as the Expressionist groups in Dresden and Munich were forming, the themes of her work prefigure the movement. This likely self-portrait exhibits her desire to convey not the idealized appearance of the female body but rather its fundamental essence, stripped of all the world’s trappings. She distilled the human body into flattened forms—achieved by erasing and blending the charcoal—and abbreviated the delineation of the feet, hands, and face. The sitter’s piercing stare invites the viewer to move beyond the body as flesh and blood toward her emotional or spiritual state. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 240 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n260 DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. page number: Mentioned: pp. 226-27, p. 296; Reproduced: p. 227 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.35/1973.35_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.35/1973.35_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.35/1973.35_full.tif