it was a wonderful book that inspired me to research & read further on the lives of women artists and paula modersohn becker. i must admit that this is one of the best books i reviewed through netgalley, i purchased a copy for myself and a few for friends & family.

'women do not have a surname. they have a first name. their surname is ephemeral, a temporary loan, an unreliable indicator. they find their bearings elsewhere and this is what determines their affirmation in the world, their 'being there', their creative work, their signature. they invent themselves in a man's world, by breaking and entering.'

“And, take note: it is the first time. The first time that a woman has painted herself naked.”

Marie Darrieussecq has written a slim imagined biography of the Expressionist painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, which is almost as Expressionist as the paintings we know of Modersohn-Becker. Born in Germany in 1876, she died at the early age of thirty-one after childbirth, a life cut short.

But not before marrying and painting a number of paintings, most significantly of herself while pregnant, the first time a woman has painted herself naked, as Darrieussecq notes. The author inserts herself into the text too – imagining the life of thi9s woman who lived over a hundred years ago and expolains: “I … am writing this story, which is not Paula M. Becker’s life as she lived it, but my sense of it a century later. A trace.” But a trace informed by her reading of diaries and other biographical snippets. The painter fascinates Darrieussecq because, “In Paula’s work there are real women. I want to say women who are naked at long last: stripped of the masculine gaze. Women who are not posing in front of a man, who are not seen through the lens of men’s desire, frustration, possessiveness, domination, aggravation.”

And, as such, this biography, although slim, written in a present-tense, dream-like tone is an interesting read which illuminates some of the forgotten corners of this painter’s life. But it is a short read, and I can’t help feeling like there are yet more layers to be uncovered – perhaps hidden in the diaries, perhaps awaiting more discovery.

Marie Darrieussecq’s intimate and empathetic biography of German Expressionist painter Paula Modersohn-Becker reads like a novel and draws the reader in from page one. Darrieussecq writes about her subject with obvious affection and admiration and her grief at Modersohn-Becker’s all too early death at the age of just 31 from an embolism following childbirth is moving indeed. It’s a short book, and certainly not a conventional cradle to grave account, but Darrieussecq’s impressionistic style with its short sentences and way of making every world count brings the artist to life in a way a more conventional biography would not. I knew nothing about Paula Modersohn-Becker but this book has inspired me to learn more and look at her work, with Darrieussecq’s understanding and analysis to help me. Her brief career, so cruelly cut short, and the difficulty that she, as so many other women artists had and still have in establishing artistic careers is examined by Darrieussecq to great effect. A moving and engaging account of a fascinating woman.

Lyrical and absorbing. A wondrous glimpse at the life of a tragically overlooked painter, Paula Modersohn-Becker.