- 136
Chaim Soutine
Description
- Chaïm Soutine
- Portrait de femme de face
- Signed Soutine (lower right)
- Oil on canvas
- 21 3/4 by 18 1/4 in.
- 55.2 by 46.4 cm
Provenance
Paul Guillaume, Paris
Julius Fleischmann, United States
Mr. & Mrs. Adolphe A. Juvuler, New York (by 1953)
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
Gustave & Marion Ring, Washington, D.C.
Hadassah Medical Relief Association, Inc., Washington, D.C. (by 1988)
Sale: Christie's, New York, May 11, 1988, lot 43
Private Collection (by 1989)
Exhibited
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Selections from the Collection of Marion and Gustave Ring, 1985-86, no. 47, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Literature
Maurice Tuchman, Esti Dunow & Klaus Perls, Chaim Soutine, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. ll, Cologne, 1993, no. 128, illustrated in color p. 699
Condition
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.
Catalogue Note
Portrait de femme de face exemplifies the extraordinary talents of Chaim Soutine, one of the most innovative portraitists of the early 20th century. Rather than seeking glamorous models of high social status, Soutine instead turned to everyday people as a source of inspiration for his most successful works. Many of the models who posed for his pictures were relative unknowns from the working class, such as butchers, page boys, waiters and maids. In his wildly expressive and eccentric depictions of these figures, Soutine is able to transform the appearance of his models from the commonplace to the truly outstanding. He achieves that effect in this arresting portrait of a woman painted circa 1929. The deliberate lack of detail takes the viewer's focus away from the potential narrative of the painting, and centers our attention on the pure monumentality of the picture and the physical and emotional power of the portrait.
"Soutine's insistence on the physical particularity of his subject, together with this move towards more anonymous sitters, demonstrates his resistance to completely losing himself in the subjective aspects of the portrait experience. This resistance to a complete union between painter and model is also felt in the way Soutine's figures 'pose' before him and us, open to our penetrating scrutiny, but somehow indifferent to the artist's presence... It is the tension between their seeming detachment, on the one hand, and an awareness of Soutine's personal involvement with them, on the other, that heightens the expressive charge of these figures" (M. Tuchmann, E. Dunow & K. Perls, op. cit., pp. 509-510).