Editing Rainer Maria Rilke (section)

===Paris (1902–1910)===
[[File:Paula Modersohn-Becker 016.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Paula Modersohn-Becker]] (1876–1907), an early expressionist painter, became acquainted with Rilke in Worpswede and Paris, and painted his portrait in 1906.]]
In the summer of 1902, Rilke left home and travelled to Paris to write a [[monograph]] on the sculptor [[Auguste Rodin]]. Before long his wife left their daughter with her parents and joined Rilke there. The relationship between Rilke and Clara Westhoff continued for the rest of his life; a mutually-agreed-upon effort towards a divorce was bureaucratically hindered by the fact that Rilke was a Catholic, albeit a non-practising one.

At first, Rilke had a difficult time in Paris, an experience that he called upon in the first part of his only novel, ''[[The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge]]''. At the same time his encounter with modernism was very stimulating: Rilke became deeply involved with the sculpture of Rodin and then the work of [[Paul Cézanne]]. For a time, he acted as Rodin's secretary, also lecturing and writing a long essay on Rodin and his work. Rodin taught him the value of objective observation and, under this influence, Rilke dramatically transformed his poetic style from the subjective and sometimes incantatory language of his earlier work into something quite new in European literature. The result was the ''[[New Poems]]'', famous for the "[[Dinggedicht|thing-poems]]" expressing Rilke's rejuvenated artistic vision. During these years, Paris increasingly became the writer's main residence.

The most important works of the Paris period were ''Neue Gedichte'' (''New Poems'') (1907), ''Der Neuen Gedichte Anderer Teil'' (''Another Part of the New Poems'') (1908), the two "Requiem" poems (1909), and the novel ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', started in 1904 and completed in January 1910.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/rainer-maria-rilke|title=Rainer Maria Rilke|last=Rilke|first=Rainer Maria|date=2000-07-12|website=Rainer Maria Rilke|language=en|access-date=2017-07-17}}</ref>

During the later part of this decade, Rilke spent extended periods in [[Ronda]], the famous bullfighting centre in southern Spain, where he kept a permanent room at the Hotel Reina Victoria from December 1912 to February 1913.<ref>[http://www.zeit.de/1983/07/mit-rilke-in-ronda "Mit Rilke in Ronda"] by {{Interlanguage link|Volker Mauersberger|de}}, ''[[Die Zeit]]'', 11 February 1983 {{in lang|de}}</ref><ref>[http://www.andalucia.com/ronda/hotelreina.htm "Hotel Catalonia Reina Victoria"], andalucia.com</ref>