Being Here

Born in Germany in 1876, Paula Modersohn-Becker was the first female artist to paint herself not only naked but pregnant. Being Here is a moving account of the life of this ground-breaking Expressionist painter by the acclaimed French writer Marie Darrieussecq. Darrieussecq thrillingly describes Paula’s discovery of her style and choice of subjects – women, babies, domestic life. She tells the story of her fraught marriage, her ambivalence about combining her passion for her career as an artist with motherhood. And she recounts her tragic death at thirty-one, days after giving birth.

Author Biography

Marie Darrieussecq is a French writer born in Bayonne in 1969. Her first novel, Pig Tales, was published in 1996 and subsequently translated into thirty-five languages. She has written some fifteen books for adults, including novels, short fiction, a play, and nonfiction works. In 2013 she was awarded both the Prix Medicis and the Prix des Prix for her novel Men. Being Here, her biography of Paula Modersohn-Becker, was released in 2017. She is a regular contributor to contemporary art magazines in France and Britain and also writes for Liberation and Charlie Hebdo. She lives in Paris.