Requiem for Paula Modersohn-Becker (by Rainer Maria Rilke)

Her Half of History · Jul 13, 2023 · 17m

One year to the day after Paula Modersohn-Becker died, her friend, the celebrated poet Rainer Maria Rilke, sat down to write a Requiem for her, and today’s episode is that requiem in translation. I suggest listening to last week's episode before this one because the poem has numerous references to Paula and her life:

· the amber necklace that appeared in many of her paintings,

· her pursuit of still life in which she arranged fruits in a way quite different from the traditional still life bounty,

· her pursuit of the nude genre, in which she portrayed women, not as desirable and available…