"Still Life with Fish Bowl," Paula Modersohn-Becker, c. 1906.

Considered one of the most important early Expressionists, Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) is considered the first female Western artist to do nude self-portraits, and the first woman artist to have a museum dedicated solely to her works.

Brought up by a cultured family, she learned to draw early and began formal art lessons at 16, when she also set up her first studio. She moved to Paris in 1900, and there married Otto Modersohn. The marriage was turbulent, though, with her realizing that she yearned for independence. It was an intensely creative time for her, though, and she completed many works. Sadly, she died of a postpartum thrombosis in 1907, only 31.

A museum of her works opened in 1927 in Bremen but the Third Reich ruled her work "degenerate" and some works were seemingly destroyed. After WWII her daughter Mathilde started a foundation in her mother's name and a new museum established.

From the Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany,

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