“The review was more a satisfaction to me than a joy. Joy, overpoweringly beautiful moments, comes to an artist without other noticing. The same is true for moments of sadness. That's why it is true that artists live mostly in solitude... Otto [Modersohn] and I shall be coming home [ Worpswede ] again in the spring. That man is touching in his love. We are going to try to buy the Brünjes place in order to make our lives together freer and more open... If the dear Lord will allow me once again to create something beautiful, then I shall be happy and satisfied; if only I have a place where I can work in peace. I will be grateful for the portion of love I've received. If one can remain healthy and not die too young..”

— Paula Modersohn-Becker

In a letter from Paris, 18 November 1906, to her sister Milly; as quoted in Voicing our visions, – Writings by women artists; ed. Mara R. Witzling, Universe New York, 1991, p. 206
1906 + 1907

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The review was more a satisfaction to me than a joy. Joy, overpoweringly beautiful moments, comes to an artist without …" by Paula Modersohn-Becker?

Paula Modersohn-Becker 55

German artist 1876–1907

Related quotes

“In the world of the dreamer there was solitude: all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Children of the Albatross (1947)
Context: In the world of the dreamer there was solitude: all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude. But with action came anxiety, and the sense of insuperable effort made to match the dream, and with it came weariness, discouragement, and the flight into solitude again. And then in solitude, in the opium den of remembrance, the possibility of pleasure again.

“Our love is old, our lives are old,
And death shall come amain;
Should it come today, what man may say
We shall not live again?”

Langdon Smith Evolution

Evolution (1895; 1909)

“Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

“One sunny spring day I heard the music coming down Karl Johan [street] and it filled me with joy. The spring, the sun, the music, all blended together to make me shiver with pleasure. The music added colour to the colours. I painted the picture [his painting 'Music on Karl Johan'] allowing the colours to reverberate with the rhythm of the music. I painted the colours as I saw them at that moment.”

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker

Quote in 'Livsfrisen tilblivelse', Blomqvist, Oslo 1929, p. 12
1896 - 1930

“In all these moments, we gradually make our lives more of a prayer and we open our hands to be led by God even to places we would rather not go.”

Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) Dutch priest and writer

With Open Hands (1972)

“Handsome, strong, gay … She felt again the thro and lilt of her blood. She had loved Kameni in that moment. She loved him now. Kameni could take the place that Khay had held in her life. She thought: "We shall be happy together - yes, we shall be happy. We shall live together and take pleasure in each other and we shall have strong, handsome children. There will be busy days full of work … and days of pleasure when we sail on the River…Life will be again as I knew it with Khay…What could I ask more than that? What do I want more than that?"”

Agatha Christie book Death Comes as the End

Death Comes as the End (1945)

“We relinquished our freedom that day, and we were more than happy to see it go. From that moment on we lived in true freedom, the freedom to point to someone else and say “They told me to do it! It’s their fault, not mine.” The freedom, God help us, to say “I was only following orders.””

Max Brooks book World War Z

World War Z

“Come! for I need Thy love,
More than the flower the dew, or grass the rain;
Come like Thy Holy Dove,
And let me in Thy sight rejoice to live again.”

Jones Very (1813–1880) American poet and essayist

From The Prayer

“Then at certain moments I remember one of his words and I suddenly feel the sensual woman flaring up, as if violently caressed. I say the word to myself, with joy. It is at such a moment that my true body lives.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin

“I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again”

Francis Bacon book The Advancement of Learning

Book II
The Advancement of Learning (1605)
Context: I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again: which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgments by confutations.

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Paula Modersohn-Becker 55

Related quotes

Related topics