Link only available on sub pages

Paula Modersohn-Becker repeatedly returned to portraiture in her painting, focusing not only on herself or farmers, but also on children, mostly girls.

While children in the 19th century were predominantly depicted as cheerful, happy beings, art at the turn of the century began to focus more consciously on children and their own world. Unlike Käthe Kollwitz, however, Modersohn-Becker's paintings do not reveal any moralizing or accusatory intent. Sometimes she simply leaves the children in their natural, creaturely environment, sometimes – as in this painting – she removes them from a definable context. The girl depicted here looks to the right, a striped shawl around her shoulders and a bouquet of flowers in front of her chest. She wears a decorative necklace in her tied-back hair. She is set against a monochrome gray-blue background. Flowers, jewelry, and a cape give the portrait the impression of being staged and are reminiscent of ancient icon painting, a field Modersohn-Becker explored at the Louvre in Paris.