Dear Friend: Rainer Maria Rilke and Paula Modersohn-Becker

by Eric Torgersen

In 1908, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote "Requiem for a Friend" in memory of Paula Modersohn-Becker, the German painter who had profoundly affected him and who had died a year earlier. Although a great modern painter, Modersohn-Becker is remembered primarily as she is portrayed in Rilke's poem. Dear Friend looks at the relationship of two great artists whose often-strained friendship was extraordinary for both.

Genres: Art

276 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 1998

About the author

Eric Torgersen has published eight books and chapbooks of poetry, two of fiction, and a full-length study of Rainer Maria Rilke and Paula Modersohn-Becker. He also translates German poetry, especially that of Rainer Maria Rilke and Nicolas Born. He was born in Melville, New York. He has a BA in German Literature from Cornell University; after two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, he earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa. He retired in the spring of 2008 after 38 years of teaching writing at Central Michigan University. He lives in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan with his wife, the quilt artist Ann Kowaleski. He’s available for workshops and readings.

Reviews

[Jamie Jamison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about the intertwined and interesting lives of the German modernist painter, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Otto Modersohn (her husband, also an artist), Clara Rilke-Westhoff (another artist) and Rainer Rilke (poet). A good read.

[Klissia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The truth is that all I have read about Paula Becker brings me Joy and bit of sadness. A beautiful Life and a gifted artist. Her Letters correspondence with Rilke are pure poetry sometimes,even if one feel a intruse in inner intimacies of their minde and relationship.
A good read.

[Elijah · Rating 4 out of 5]

the best part was everything paula wrote

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drawing upon a wealth of primary resources - including letters to and from Paula, Rilke, Clara Westhoff, and Otto Modersohn, as well as the artwork created by Paula, Otto, and Clara, and Rilke's poetry - Torgersen weaves a cohesive account of how these four artists met, interacted, and influenced each other. The book is organized largely chronologically, including biographical information about Rilke and Paula's lives before they met at the German artists' colony of Worpswede.

Though Rilke was initially attracted to Paula, she was already (secretly) engaged to Otto (whose first wife, Helene, had recently died) when they met. Rilke's attentions then turned to Paula's friend and fellow artist Clara Westhoff, a sculptor. Rilke and Clara married on April 28, 1901, and Paula and Otto's wedding followed on May 25, 1901. Their four lives continued to be intermingled - sometimes peacefully, more often with tension - for the next several years.

At the center of many of Rilke and Paula's disagreements and misunderstandings was his belief that one must choose art or life (preferably art over life), and her belief that she could be happy in life and also create art. Rilke's "Requiem for a Friend" indicated that he thought her life had been wrongfully cut short (she died shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Mathilde, in 1907) before she could fully realize her potential as an artist, but Torgersen argues that "her life, though cut short, was a triumph" (245).


Quotes TK