In 1897, the Art Colony was officially established and Modersohn married Helene Schröder (1868-1900), the daughter of a Bremen merchant.

Two years later, he resigned from the association, citing his continuing fight for the personal, individual liberty of every artist.

In 1911, when the Kunsthalle Bremen purchased Van Gogh's Field with Poppies, Modersohn was the only Worpswede artist to support the museum, concluding that nationalistic sentiments should play no role in the world of art.

In the 1920s and early 30s, he and Louise made extensive study trips throughout Germany and, in 1933, he acquired an old farmhouse on the Gailenberg in Bad Hindelang for use as a studio.

A year before his death, he was persuaded to speak on the subject of visual arts at the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

From 1874 to 1889, he concentrated on small-scale studies and landscapes, painted directly from nature in the Plein Air style of the Barbizon School.

[5] Artistic interaction with his second wife, Paula, led to the development of a style emphasizing simplicity and humanity, expressed in their maxim "Das Ding an sich in Stimmung" (roughly, "The thing-in-itself in the mood/feeling").