Chaïm Soutine (13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a Belarusian painter who made a major contribution to the

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the works of Rembrandt, Chardin and

Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

, Soutine developed an individual style more concerned with shape, color, and texture than representation, which served as a bridge between more traditional approaches and the developing form of Abstract Expressionism.

Early life

Soutine was born Chaim-Iche Solomonovich Sutin, in Smilavičy (Yiddish: סמילאָוויץ, romanized: Smilovitz) in the Minsk Governorate of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(present-day

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

). He was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and the tenth of eleven children born to parents Zalman (also reported as Solomon and Salomon) Moiseevich Sutin (1858–1932) and Sarah Sutina (née Khlamovna) (died in 1938). From 1910 to 1913 he studied in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

at a small art academy. In 1913, with his friends Pinchus Kremegne and Michel Kikoine, he emigrated to Paris, where he studied at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

under

Fernand Cormon Fernand Cormon (24 December 1845 – 20 March 1924) was a French painter born in Paris. He became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Eugène Fromentin, and Jean-François Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France. Biogra ...

. He soon developed a highly personal vision and painting technique.

Career

For a time, he and his friends lived at La Ruche, a residence for struggling artists in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

where he became friends with Amedeo Modigliani. Modigliani painted Soutine's portrait several times, most famously in 1917, on a door of an apartment belonging to

Léopold Zborowski Léopold Zborowski (1889–1932) was a Polish poet, writer and art dealer. He was born in Zaleszczyki into a Jewish family. Zborowski and his wife Anna (Hanka Zborowska) were contemporaries with Parisian artists such as Chaïm Soutine, André De ...

, who was their art dealer. Zborowski supported Soutine through World War I, taking the struggling artist with him to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

to escape the possible German invasion of Paris. After the war

Paul Guillaume Paul Guillaume (1891 in Paris – 1934 in Paris) was a French art dealer. Dealer of Chaïm Soutine and Amedeo Modigliani, he was one of the first to organize African art exhibitions. He also bought and sold many works from cutting-edge artists of ...

, a highly influential art dealer, began to champion Soutine's work. In 1923, in a showing arranged by Guillaume, the prominent American collector Albert C. Barnes, bought 60 of Soutine's paintings on the spot. Soutine, who had been virtually penniless in his years in Paris, immediately took the money, ran into the street, hailed a Paris taxi, and ordered the driver to take him to

, on the French Riviera, more than 400 miles away.

Carcass paintings

Soutine once horrified his neighbours by keeping an animal carcass in his studio so that he could paint it (''Carcass of Beef''). The stench drove them to send for the police, whom Soutine promptly lectured on the relative importance of art over hygiene. There's a story that Marc Chagall saw the blood from the carcass leak out onto the corridor outside Soutine's room, and rushed out screaming, "Someone has killed Soutine." Soutine painted 10 works in this series, which have since become his most well-known. His carcass paintings were inspired by Rembrandt's still life of the same subject, '' Slaughtered Ox'', which he discovered while studying the Old Masters in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. Soutine produced the majority of his works from 1920 to 1929. From 1930 to 1935, the interior designer Madeleine Castaing and her husband welcomed him to their summer home, the mansion of Lèves, becoming his

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

s, so that Soutine could hold his first exhibition in

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in 1935. He seldom showed his works, but he did take part in the important exhibition ''The Origins and Development of International Independent Art'' held at the

Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume Jeu de Paume ( en, Real Tennis Court) is an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media. It is located in the north corner (west side) of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 2004, Galerie Nationale ...

in 1937 in Paris, where he was at last hailed as a great painter.

German invasion

Soon afterwards France was invaded by German troops. As a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

, Soutine had to escape from the French capital and hide to avoid arrest by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

. He moved from one place to another and was sometimes forced to seek shelter in forests, sleeping outdoors.

Illness and death

Suffering from a stomach ulcer and bleeding badly, Soutine left a safe hiding place for Paris for emergency surgery, which failed to save his life. On 9 August 1943, he died of a perforated ulcer. He was interred in Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris.

Legacy

In February 2006, an oil painting of his controversial and iconic series ''Le Bœuf Écorché'' (1924) sold for a record £7.8 million ($13.8 million) to an anonymous buyer at a Christie's auction held in London—after it was estimated to fetch £4.8 million. In February 2007, a 1921 portrait of an unidentified man with a red scarf (''L'Homme au Foulard Rouge'') sold for $17.2 million—a new record—at Sotheby's London auction house. In May 2015, ''Le Bœuf'', circa 1923, oil on canvas, achieved a record price for the artist of $28,165,000 at the Christie's curated auction ''Looking forward to the past''. One of the beef paintings, known as ''Le boeuf'', was sold for $1 million in 2004 and resold six months later for twice that price to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. Heirs of the first seller sued to have the painting returned, claiming the price was unfairly low, and a complex settlement in 2009 required the painting to be transferred to them. Roald Dahl placed him as a character in his 1952 short story "

Skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...

". The Jewish Museum in New York has presented major exhibitions of Soutine's work in ''An Expressionist in Paris: The Paintings of Chaim Soutine'' (1998) and ''Chaim Soutine: Flesh'' (2018). In 2020, Soutine's painting ''Eva'' became a symbol of pro-democracy protests in Belarus.

Gallery

Portraits and figures File:1918, Soutine, Self Portrait.jpg, ''Self Portrait'' (1918) oil on canvas, 21.5 × 18 in., Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum File:Musée Calvet Soutine Chaïm L'Idiot.jpg, ''The Idiot'' (c. 1920) oil on canvas, 36.2 × 25.5 in., Calvet Museum, Avignon File:Farm Girl (1922) oil on canvas, 31.5 x 17.5 in., collection unknown.jpg, ''Farm Girl'' (1922) oil on canvas, 31.5 × 17.5 in., collection unknown File:Chaïm Soutine - Le Petit Pâtissier.jpg, ''The Little Pastry Chef'' (1922–23) oil on canvas, 73 × 54 cm, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris File:Chaïm Soutine - Woman in Pink - 27-1992 - Saint Louis Art Museum.jpg, ''Woman in Pink'' (c. 1924) oil on canvas, 73 × 54.3 cm., Saint Louis Art Museum File:Portrait Of A Man With A Felt Hat (1924) oil on canvas, 36 x 28 in., collection unknown.jpg, ''Portrait Of A Man With A Felt Hat'' (1924) oil on canvas, 36 × 28 in., collection unknown File:Young Girl with a Doll (1926–1927) oil on canvas, 25.5 × 19.5 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.jpg, Young Girl with a Doll (1926–1927) oil on canvas, 25.5 × 19.5 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston File:Portrait of Madeleine Castaing.jpg, ''Portrait of Madeleine Castaing'' (c. 1929) oil on canvas, 100 × 73 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York File:Female Nude (1933) oil on canvas, 18 x 10.5 in., collection unknown.jpg, ''Female Nude'' (1933) oil on canvas, 18 × 10.5 in., collection unknown Still Lifes File:Soutine, La Table, c. 1919.jpg, ''The Table'' (c. 1923) oil on canvas, 35.8 x 39.3 in., Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris File:Still Life with Rayfish MET DT4177.jpg, ''Still Life with Rayfish'' (c. 1924) oil on canvas, 32 × 39.5 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York File:Soutine-2014-08.jpg, ''Still life with Pheasant'' (c. 1924) oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris File:Chicken Hung Before a Brick Wall by Chaim Soutine.jpg, ''Chicken Hung Before a Brick Wall'' (1925) oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland File:Soutine-2014-06.jpg, ''The Plucked Chicken'' (c. 1925), oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris File:Hanging Turkey by Chaim Soutine, c. 1925, oil on millboard.jpg, ''Hanging Turkey'' (c. 1925) oil on millboard, dimensions unknown, File:Carcass of Beef by Chaim Soutine, c. 1925, Albright-Knox Art Gallery.jpg, ''Carcass of Beef'' (c. 1925), oil on canvas, 53 × 32 in., Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Landscapes File:1920, Soutine, Chemin de la Fontaine des Tins at Céret.jpg, ''Chemin de la Fontaine des Tins at

Céret Céret (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. It is the capital of the historic Catalan comarca of Vallespir. Geography The town lies in the foothills of the Pyrénées mountains, in southern France. ...

'', c. 1920, Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum File:Soutine - Chemin Fontaine Fils à Céret (1920).jpg, ''Chemin de la Fontaine Fils à Céret'' (1920) details unknown File:View of Ceret, by Chaim Soutine, Russian active in France, c. 1921-1922, oil on canvas - Princeton University Art Museum - DSC06974.jpg, ''View of Céret'' (c. 1921–22) oil on canvas, Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum File:1922, Soutine, Steeple of Saint-Pierre at Céret.jpg, ''Steeple of Saint-Pierre at Céret'', c. 1922, Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum File:'Landscape with Figures-Céret' by Chaïm Soutine, 1922, High Museum of Art.JPG, ''Landscape with Figures-Céret'' (1922) oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, High Museum of Art, Atlanta File:View of Cagnes MET DT4178.jpg, View of Cagnes (c. 1924 –25) oil on canvas, 23.7 × 28.8 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York File:Return From School (c.1939) oil on canvas, 18 x 19.75 in., The Phillips Collcetion, Washington, D. C.jpg, ''Return From School'' (c. 1939) oil on canvas, 18 × 19.75 in., The Phillips Collcetion, Washington, D. C.

Footnotes

References

* * * Tuchman, Maurice;
Chaim Soutine (1893–1943)
', Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1968 * Tuchman, Maurice; Esti Dunow (1993) ''Chaim Soutine (1893–1943): catalogue raisonné''. Köln: Benedikt Taschen Verlag. * ''Chaïm Soutine and his Contemporaries: from Russia to Paris'', Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, 2012, * Soutine: The power and the fury of an eccentric genius by Stanley Meisle

* Ifkovic, Ed. Soutine in Exile: A Novel. Createspace, 2017. * ''Chaïm Soutine'', documentary film by Valérie Firla, written by Valérie Firla and Murielle Levy, 52 min, Les Productions du Golem, Ed. Réunion des musées nationaux, broadcast in France in 200