Paula Modersohn-Becker challenged artistic conventions perpetuated by her male counterparts by painting female nudes that included mothers and pregnant women. She began her training in Berlin, later moving to an artist community in Worpswede. In 1899 she traveled to Paris, enrolling at the Académie Colarossi and studying art in French museums, but returned regularly to Worpswede. She had a short artistic career due to her early death in 1907, but in fourteen years of activity, she created 750 paintings, thirteen etchings, and approximately 1,000 drawings.

A fully illustrated catalogue, Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900, has been published by the American Federation of Arts and Yale University Press. Along with an art-historical overview by curator Laurence Madeline, the catalogue includes essays by Jane R. Becker, collections management associate, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Richard Kendall, former curator at large, Clark Art Institute; Bridget Alsdorf, associate professor, History of Art, Princeton University; and Vibeke Hansen, curator, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo.