The extraordinary works of the painter Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) and the weaver Anni Albers (1899-1994) demonstrate few obvious aesthetic affinities. But the stories of their artistic careers and personal lives reveal striking similarities in terms of their struggles as women artists in the early twentieth century. Both married artists, and both were affiliated with “artist colonies,” Paula at the cooperative settlement in Worpswede near Bremen, Germany, and Anni at the Dessau Bauhaus and Black Mountain College. Art Muse Erika Esau will not only focus on each artist’s aesthetic innovations, but also consider the complex social issues that the women had to negotiate. First, each had to cope with being part of what the Germans call a “Künstlerehepaar,” or married artist couple; and then, each had to carve out her own artistic niche within the confines of male-dominated art institutions.