Girl in a Birch Forest, ca. 1903

At the end of the nineteenth century a group of German landscape painters settled in Worpswede near Bremen. In their endeavour to find a new source of inspiration for painting while surrounded by nature and the simple rustic life they resembled the artists at Latem. Paula Modersohn-Becker also worked in Worpswede from 1898 onwards. She is regarded as the most important member of the group and developed a simple, direct style that anticipated German Expressionism. Apart from numerous self-portraits, her preferred subject was the rural population around Worpswede. Girl in a Birch Forest is one of the many studies the artist made of figures set against a background of silver birch trees, the perfect symbol of spring and youth.