The short, obscure, and prolific life of the German expressionist
painter Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907), a significant figure in
modernism.
First published in France in 2016, Being Here Is So Much traces the
short, obscure, and prolific life of the German expressionist painter
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907). In a brief career, cut short by her
death from an embolism at the age of thirty-one, shortly after she gave
birth to a child, Modersohn-Becker trained in Germany, traveled often to
Paris, developed close friendships with the sculptor Clara Westhoff and
the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and became one of her generation's
preeminent artists, helping introduce modernity to the twentieth century
alongside such other painters as Picasso and Matisse.
Marie Darrieussecq's triumphant and illuminating biography at once
revives Modersohn-Becker's reputation as a significant figure in
modernism and sheds light on the extreme difficulty women have faced in
attaining recognition and establishing artistic careers.