Chaïm Soutine

Private Collection, France (sale: Sotheby's, Paris, 9th December 2009, lot 65)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Munich, Galerie Thomas, Chaïm Soutine: The Passion of Painting, 2009

The canvas is not lined. There is a thin layer of varnish preventing the UV light from fully penetrating, however UV examination does reveal a few spots of retouching in the thicker pigment to the lower part of the leftmost branch and some minor fluorescence to the lower right quadrant. There is some light frame rubbing along the extreme edges, with a few tiny spots of paint loss to the lower right corner. This work is in overall 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted circa 1918 and characterized by powerful strokes of bold colour, the present work exemplifies Chaïm Soutine's expressive potential as a landscape artist. Depicting the outskirts of Paris, it is one of the earliest landscapes by Soutine bearing the hallmark of the dynamic, feverish style for which the artist would become so famous. 

Arriving in Paris in 1913, Soutine left La Ruche to settle in the suburb of Falguière where he shared a studio with Modigliani.  Aside from his many portraits and still lives, he was interested in the depiction of nature in its rawest state. Thus he began to depict Falguière, the streets of Clamart where he visited his friend Kikoïne, and other surrounding landscapes. The beauty of the neighboring countryside gave him the opportunity to develop a powerful naturalism where nature at its most glorious take centre stage.  In the present work, nature seems to overtake man. Though we glimpse some mysterious ochre-red buildings at the background of the composition signalling human interaction, these are not the subject of the painting; Soutine rather focuses on the greenery of the foliage which occupies the whole of the foreground and the two trees which cut the composition into two distinct parts.

There is an almost Cézanne-like quality to the brushstrokes within the present work; indeed, Cézanne’s art had a profound influence on Soutine: ‘The way in which Cézanne rigorously cropped and fragmented the space surrounding his forms, this crushing of ‘solids into flat planes’ became more than a mere pictorial technique for Soutine.  The artist transformed this visual construction into an extremely personal metaphor: it became a way of expressing this inevitable fusion of forms and subjects, this personification of forms, flesh and pigments, fundamental in his landscapes, his still lives and portraits’ (exhibition catalogue: Chaim Soutine, Galerie Thomas, Munich, 2009, p. 65).

While the foliage of the trees and the verticality of their trunks dominate and enliven the canvas, the tall grasses, rushes and clumps serve as the bedrock of the composition.  Aside from this structure and the classic framing – remaining faithful to the view that is before his eyes – Soutine's rich painting style thickens, his palette lightens, the colours diversify and absorb the surface of the canvas, heralding the explosion of tones that would appear in the Mediterranean pictures just a few weeks later.