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MODERSOHN-BECKER, Paula: Self-portrait in front of a green background with a blue iris

🖼 Self-portrait in front of a green background with a blue iris, 1900
Bremen, Germany

Soft brushwork renders the artist's frontal gaze against emerald backdrop, a blue iris blooming beside her shoulder in intimate stillness. Modersohn-Becker's self-portrait challenged early modernism's male dominance, establishing women's visual authority through bold simplification and symbolic flora.

The Story of Art
The Story of Art
E.H. Gombrich
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