Self Portrait with Red Flower Wreath and Chain by Paula Modersohn-Becker

Self Portrait with Red Flower Wreath and Chain by Paula Modersohn Becker

Everything in this picture is bright and festive, especially a red wreath, shining like a pennant. And a light blouse, and elegant chain. But what sad eyes! What a sharp contrast to all colors, the mouth, too, without a smile, reflects only the bitterness that is in her heart.

The picture was painted in sharp and rough strokes, the paint lay down on the canvas in a thick layer and no glazing. It is evident that she took paint from the palette and with a sharp movement sculpted the portrait.

What is so upsetting the young woman, why she look at us so sadly, without leaving any details and comments. Just conveyed a state of mind.

My heart is simply compressed when I look at this portrait, I already know that soon her life will be so tragically and so prematurely cut short… She had a premonition for her early death, wrote about it in letters and diaries, and the work has written by means of painting that the holiday will end soon…