Chaim Solomonovich Soutine (January 13, 1893 – August 9, 1943) is one of the most prominent representatives of L’Ecole de Paris or the “Paris School”, which became the cradle of outstanding masters of painting of the 20th century. Chaim Solomonovich Soutine entered the history of fine arts as a French artist, although he was born in the Minsk province and left Russia only at the age of twenty. The early work of the painter has not been preserved, and his biography is still incomplete. Unlike Belarus, the artist is well known in the West – Soutine’s paintings adorn the expositions of the best museums in the world, and go for millions of dollars at auctions.
Chaim Soutine wrote works in his own style, which is still difficult to define today. In his works, art historians find similarities with German expressionism, the influence of abstract impressionism, elements of supernaturalism, futurism and primitivism. The master’s works amaze with their filigree ability to convey the intensity of emotions with the help of images far from aesthetics: images of killed and butchered animals, deformed faces in portraits, seemingly shapeless landscapes.
Biography of Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine was born into a large Jewish family that lived thirty kilometers from Minsk. Chaim’s father was engaged in mending clothes, his mother raised eleven children. The family adhered to strict religious traditions, which left an imprint on the character of the boy.
From an early age, the young artist passionately loved to draw, and at first his parents supported his son’s hobbies. However, when valuable things began to disappear from the house, which Chaim was selling to buy supplies for painting, his father became furious. In the course were both persuasion and beatings. At the age of fourteen, the teenager fled to Minsk, where he studied for a year at the school of Yakov Kruger.
Moved to Vilna
Close to home, it was difficult for Soutine to get rid of the pressure of his parents, so in 1910 he moved to Vilna. In the new place, the well-known lawyer, politician and philanthropist Maxim Vinaver helped the young painter a lot, who assigned the young man to the local School of Fine Arts. The teachers highly appreciated the work of Chaim. Thanks to the help of Vilna patrons, in 1913 he managed to get to the French capital.
Despite the poor financial situation, Soutine attended the paid class of the realist artist Fernand Cormon for some time. Meanwhile, the work of the inhabitants of Montparnasse gradually began to attract the attention of collectors, but the First World War interrupted the exhibition activity. During this period, Soutine sold his work for literally a few francs and lived in poverty. Help came from Modigliani – he introduced a friend to the philanthropist Leopold Zbrovsky, who undertook to patronize Soutine. In 1918, the patron took his ward to Nice, as it was too dangerous to stay in Paris due to frequent bombardments. A year later, Chaim moved to the commune of Céret in southern France, where he devoted most of his time to landscapes.
Everything changed in 1922 when the artist returned to Paris.
Then the American doctor and inventor Albert Barnes visited the capital of France in order to replenish his collection of paintings. Having carefully studied the works of Soutine, he bought more than 70 paintings at once, literally devastating the painter’s studio. For the first time in the pockets of the artist was a significant amount – 60 thousand francs.
In 1923, Barnes exhibited some of the acquired paintings, and Soutine’s genius was talked about in the press. After a couple of years, the artist’s creations left auctions for three thousand francs, which at that time was considered very solid money. In 1927, the first personal exhibition of the master took place, where his works were already sold ten times more expensive.
Being extremely prolific, Soutine often revised his creations and burned works that seemed to him insufficiently perfect. Zbrovsky did not understand this quirk, and over time, the relationship between the collector and the artist soured. Guardianship of the master was taken by a couple of French patrons – Mathilde Castaing and her husband Marcelin. The couple tried to create all the conditions for creativity for the genius and put up with his complex character.
By 1937, Soutine’s stomach problems worsened.
Doctors made a disappointing diagnosis and said that the artist had no more than five years to live. Friends and acquaintances carefully concealed the medical forecast from the master, but this could not save him from suffering. Chaim had to follow a strict diet, otherwise he would have another attack. The disease negatively affected the artist’s disposition, which could hardly be called soft before.
With the beginning of the German occupation, the master refused to emigrate. A Jew by nationality, he was in mortal danger – the Gestapo declared a hunt for him. Soutine was hiding in the south of the country, but the nervous situation exacerbated the disease. After a particularly strong attack, the friends decided to put the artist in one of the Parisian clinics. After the painter arrived at the hospital, the doctors immediately performed an operation on him, but they failed to save him. Chaim Soutine died on August 9, 1943.
