"Fervor of Motherly Love": The Reception of Paula Modersohn Becker's Art in Weimar Germany

Michelle Vangen, Adjunct Professor, Kingsborough College

When Paula Modersohn-Becker died in 1907, she was essentially unknown as a painter. Within just two decades of her death, however, she had become the first woman artist in Germany to have a museum devoted to her art. In her talk, Michelle Vangen will explore how Modersohn-Becker’s fascination with motherhood, a theme she addressed repeatedly in her art, led to her rise to national renown in the 1920s. During a time when traditional gender roles were in flux, conservative art critics and collectors celebrated Modersohn-Becker’s ability to give visual form to the “fervor of motherly love.”