Chaïm Soutine

Galerie Percier, Paris

Perls Galleries, New York (acquired by 1952-53)

Bertram N. Linder, Dalton, Pennsylvania (acquired from the above in 1953 and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 7, 1977, lot 78)

Christian Fayt, Belgium 

Sale: Christie's, New York, October 31, 1978, lot 26

Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

New York, Perls Galleries, Modern French Paintings, 1952, no. 175

Venice, XXVI Biennale di Venezia, 1952, no. 6

Providence, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Chaïm Soutine: 1893-1943, 1953

New York, Perls Galleries, Modern French Paintings, 1953, no. 190

West Bloomfield, Michigan, Janice Charach Epstein Museum Gallery at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit, The Art of Collecting II - Fine Art Created by Jewish Artists, 1992

Céret, Museé d'Art Moderne de Céret, Soutine in Céret, 1919-1922, 2000, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Cologne, Galerie Gmurzynska, The Impact of Chaïm Soutine: De Kooning, Pollack, Dubuffet, Francis Bacon, 2001-02

New York Times, November 8, 1953, illustrated 

Alfred Werner, "New York-Soutine: Affinity for an Alien World," Art Digest, vol. 28, November 15, 1953, illustrated p. 17

Robert M. Coates, "The Art Galleries: Soutine and Modigliani," The New Yorker, vol. 29, November 21, 1953, no. 40, illustrated p. 106

Pierre Courthion, Soutine: Peinture du Déchirant, Lausanne, 1972, no. F, illustrated p. 205

Esti Dunow, Klaus Perls & Maurice Tuchman, Chaim Soutine, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Cologne, 1993, no. 40, illustrated in color p. 152

Please contact the Impressionist and Modern Art Department at (212) 606-7360 for the condition report for this lot.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Characterized by powerful strokes of bold color, this landscape exemplifies Soutine's expressive potential as a landscapist.  In 1919, Leopold Zborowski, the art dealer who championed the works of both Soutine and Modigliani, encouraged Soutine to leave Paris for the small town of Céret in the Pyrenees.  The "Céret Period" of 1919 to 1921 constitutes what was the most prolific period of production in the artist's career.  The approximately 200 works executed at this time are characterized by a powerfully expressionist style which, in its distortions, approaches abstraction. In a discussion of the Céret works, Monroe Wheeler stated, "The vehement and idiosyncratic style that he developed there shocked all of Soutine's contemporaries... It is as though this young man of thirty years ago felt that he had a world-shaking message...The landscapes of the Pyrenees seem, indeed, to be shaken by some cosmic force; the architecture becomes flexible and billows like a canvas, the trees reel and stumble about, and the colors seem to have been wrested hungrily from the spectrum; his palette seemed to enter the dance with his forms, the color of one whirling away with the form of another" (Soutine, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1950, p. 50).