"In art one is usually totally alone with oneself."

Paula Modersohn-Becker was born in Germany and trained as an artist at a time when opportunities for women were extremely limited. She painted mothers and children with quiet intensity. Her figures are powerful and stripped back. In her self-portraits she broke with the norms of her time and developed a personal visual language. Shortly after giving birth to her first child she died of an embolism, aged just 31. Yet despite her short life she created works that paved the way for Expressionism and came to hold great significance long after her death.