The painter Paula Modersohn-Becker and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke shared a friendship that was not free of tensions. Their mutual understanding and misunderstandings, as well as Rilke's posthumously expressed admiration for his friend's work, have often led to speculation, including the possibility of a romantic relationship. Their correspondence, brought together for dialogue for the first time, reveals them as vulnerable, kindred spirits who, at the dawn of modernity in Germany, connected their personal journeys with the search for their own artistic standpoint.