Self-Portrait on Her Sixth Wedding Anniversary

Paula Modersohn-Becker painted this nude self-portrait on May 25, 1906, the date of her wedding anniversary. She depicts herself with hands framing her bare belly, as if pregnant, though she was not. She had recently left her husband in Germany to live and work in Paris.

The title is slightly misleading due to translation. In German, "6. Hochzeitstag" refers to the sixth wedding day counting from the wedding itself, making this her fifth wedding anniversary. She signed the painting "PB" using her maiden name, pointedly omitting her married name Modersohn.

Modersohn-Becker was a pioneer of German Expressionism, creating over 700 paintings and 1,400 drawings in her short life. This is among the first nude self-portraits by a woman in Western art. Tragically, she died in 1907, just 18 days after giving birth to her daughter. It now hangs at the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen.