The First Modern Woman Artist

In 2017 The Museum of Modern Art celebrated its acquisition of “the earliest self-portrait by a woman . . . in our collection:” Self-Portrait with Two Flowers (1907) by Paula Modersohn-Becker. MoMA’s “earliest self-portrait by a woman” was also the artist’s last self-portrait, painted late in her pregnancy. After giving birth, Modersohn-Becker died, age 31, an unknown artist. Today, this self-portrait is proclaimed in the capital of modern art. How, in one century, does a woman artist go from anonymity to MoMA? Hear the answers from art historian and author Diane Radycki whose scholarship is credited with making it happen.

Photo credit: Paula Modersohn-Becker (German, 1876-1907), Self-Portrait with Two Flowers in Her Raised, Left Hand, Autumn 1907, Oil on canvas, 21 ¾ x 9 ¾ in, (55.2×24.8 cm). Jointly owned by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Debra and Leon Black, and The Neue Galerie New York, Gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder

• This event occurs in person at the National Arts Club.
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