Chaïm Soutine

Morris Gutmann (French Art Gallery), New York (1941)

Perls Galleries, New York (acquired from the above in 1941)

John McGowan, Charleston, South Carolina (acquired from the above in 1941)

Perls Galleries, New York (acquired from the above in 1951)

Peter & Elizabeth Rübel, New York (acquired from the above in 1951)

E.V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York

M. Knoedler & Co. Inc., New York (acquired from the above March 1956)

Galerie des Arts Anciens et Modernes, Liechtenstein (acquired from the above in March 1961)

Mrs. Vivien Clore Duffield, London

Acquired as a gift fom the above in 1988

New York, Perls Galleries, Classics of the School of Paris, 1944

London, Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., Nineteenth and Twentieth Century European Masters, 1957, no. 60, illustrated in the catalogue

Paris, Pinacothèque de Paris, Soutine, 2007-08, no. 52, illustrated in color

Rosamond Frost, "Revisiting the Paris Painters," Art New, New York, February 1-14, 1944, illustrated p. 11

Pierre Courthion, Soutine. Peintre du déchirant, 1972, illustrated p. 261B (as dating from 1926-27)

Maurice Tuchman, Esti Dunow & Klaus Perls, Chaim Soutine, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 1993, vol. II,  no. 71, illustrated in color p. 620

Good condition. Canvas has been lined. Paint layer is stable but a horizontal stretcher mark is visible to the naked eye in the center of the canvas. Under UV: There is a three-inch (3”) line of “feathery” inpainting over some older scattered inpainting to address the center horizontal stretcher mark. There is a one-inch (1”) by a quarter-inch (1/4”) triangular dash of inpainting over the sitter’s left hand. There are several small spots of scattered inpainting throughout as well as inpainting along the edges of the canvas to address old frame abrasions. There are a few short lines of inpainting along the sitter’s left arm. This work is in generally good 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.

Portrait d'un jeune homme epitomizes Soutine's portraiture of the middle and late 1920s, characterized by a great expressiveness of pose, rhythmically charged brushstrokes and strong color contrasts. Regardless of the age, social status, or the artist's personal involvement with the sitter, Soutine's portraits are imbued with a strong physical presence, as well as with a uniqueness and individuality of his subjects. As the authors of the Catalogue raisonné of Soutine's work have commented: "While his portraits do convey inner realities and make spiritual statements, they are primarily rooted in concrete perception. Though Soutine may project his inner turbulence and most personal feelings onto his subjects, the viewer never loses sight of a particular physical entity being carefully observed and experienced. Even the distortions and exaggerations of facial features and the shiftings and dislocations of body parts do not destroy the essential recognition in each painting of a certain person and a reality specific to him or her" (M. Tuchman, E. Dunow & K. Perls, op. cit., p. 509).

Soutine's pictures, known for their textural bravura and focus on the sensual beauty of unusual subjects, astounded his contemporaries.  Whether portraits of the working class, depictions of local monuments, landscapes or dead animals, he was able to invest vernacular subjects with a raw beauty that set him apart from the rest of the avant-garde.  In the late 1920s, the art historian Élie Faure wrote a monograph on Soutine's work, in which he extolled the artist for the passion behind his paintings and the quasi-religious fervor that he felt they expressed.  Faure's analysis of these pictures, although grippingly poetic in its formal descriptions, met with much controversy and ultimately alienated the artist from that author.   Although his interpretations of these pictures are debatable, Faure provided a description of the artist that captures accurately the intensity of his character.  "If you saw him in the street," Faure wrote, "in the pouring rain, with his fugitive look, his hat pulled down over his eyes, his beautiful, small, pale hands, this Kalmouk's face with his straight hair covering his forehead, you would feel as if you were watching unfold the drama of the Magi pushing towards the star [of Bethlehem] in search of rest" (quoted in Norman L. Kleeblatt and Kenneth E. Silver, An Expressionist in Paris, The Paintings of Chaim Soutine (exhibition catalogue); The Jewish Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Cincinatti Art Museum, 1998-99, p. 34).