Chaim Soutine - Training and Professional Development, Path to Recognition, Place in the History of Modern Jewish Art - Essay Example

Chaim Soutine Training and professional development Chaim Soutine was born into a poor Jewish family in 1893 in Smilovich, near Minski, Belarus, then part of Russian Empire. Soutine showed his talent of drawing figures from early age but was seriously discouraged by the family members, barring his mother because a Jew was not encouraged to draw (Walther, 2002). The turning point came his mother the court’s appeal and got the compensation of 25 rubles from the neighbor who had beaten 15 years old Soutine when he offered to draw the painting of his dying neighbor. With the money, his mother was finally able to send him to Minsk to enroll in an art college (Olga). A year later, Soutine shifted to Vilnus and studied in School of Fine Arts for three years. In 1913, Soutine reached Paris, where his friend from Vilnus, Pincus Krémègne, introduced him to the artists’ studio which was better known as La Ruche. In La Ruche, Soutine came in contact with many famous artists like Chagall, Lipchitz, Kisling, Modigliani etc. who had also worked there from time to time. Modigliani, later became one of his close friend and introduced Soutine to his first patron and art dealer, Sborowski. Soutine also enrolled himself into academic classes and hugely gained from his teacher Cormon, who had also taught to Van Gogh and Toulouse. His early years in Paris were spent in abject poverty when he had to work as manual laborer to buy food and paints. His early work reflects the harsh reality which had earned him the epithet of ‘savage’ in Paris. Zborowski persuaded Soutine to move to the province during the WWI, Cagnes and later to Ceret where Soutine dabbled with color and form and grew as an artist. His landscape and portrait were highly indigenous work of art and showed his unique style. Path to recognition The years in Cagnes and Ceret, saw Soutine flourish as a painter with huge potential. His work exemplified unique mixture of impressions of life at various levels of human interaction and creative visualization. His works created in the period (1923-1925) were highly original both in style and content. The abstract landscape and portraits were emboldened by color and form which are vastly different to his other work that were produced in Paris, later on. In 1923, influential art dealer, Paul Guillaume, showcased Soutine’s work where Albert Barnes, prominent art collector of America, became his ardent follower and bought more than 50 of Soutine’s paintings. Barnes intangibly became the most fanatic patron and took out Sautine from the poverty and obscurity. Soutine was highly impressed by Rembrandt and Courbet, the renowned artists of renaissance period. His ten paintings which are sequel to Carcass of Beef are reminiscent of Rembrandt’s still life paintings and depict the harsher side of life. His exhibition in Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in 1937 finally brought him into the center stage of artists’ gallery and he was acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the century. During WWII, he went into hiding when the Germans invaded Paris, because of his Jewish heritage. In 1943, Soutine’s artistic period came to an end when he came back to Paris for emergency operation of stomach ulcer which failed to save his life. Thus, it can be successfully stated that Soutine achieved professional recognition and success as an artist primarily through exhibitions and his dedicated hard work which was inimitable. Highlight of Artist’s work Soutine’s paintings of carcass are iconic because they have become the foundation of the artist’s unique impressions of life and set him apart from his compatriots and colleagues of the art world. The artist’s paintings of landscape are full of color and impressions that reflect the changing perspectives of the artist’s approach to the vagaries of life, They are especially significant because they show the emerging new artistic traits and talent that is unique to him and vastly different to his previous work that was more depressive. His portraits and drawings of women are indicative of Soutine’s distinctive style that is also inspired by Rembrandt but the forms and impression provide him with the distinctness that is truly his own. Indeed, the diversity of Soutine’s works is his most distinguishing feature that sets him apart and brings him at par with the greatest painters of all time. This is the main reason that the artist still enjoys the adulation and awe of the mainstream population. Soutine, along with other artists from Belarus, created Ecole de Paris, or School of Paris, which is a seat of modern Jewish art (Belarusian, 1994). Place in the history of Modern Jewish Art The landscape of Ceret The painting made during his most fertile period of artistic life, Soutine is poignant in its expression of style, form and color that is both ambiguous in its portrayal of feeling of loss, horror and attraction. The painting shows the anguish of the artist with the temperamental nature that can be as beguiling to senses as a moth to the light. But the distortions of form and also depict the contradiction in the artist’s emotions which is at odd with the serenity found in nature and human being. Indeed, the colors used by the artist display not only his extreme disillusion with life but they also exhibit an innate freedom that one can overcome the adversities of life. Eminent art critic Silver says ‘The landscape at Ceret here from 1919-1920 looked barbaric to certain of the French critics at the time. If you look at his landscape at Cagnes, also in the South of France, the landscape seems to be kind of rolling and turning, and the entire landscape is a kind of great distortion of intense feeling about the environment’ (Kleeblatt and Silver, 1998). Indeed, the artist’s penchant with human emotions and his dynamic viewpoint vis-à-vis nature provides him with exclusive style and forces the people to acknowledge him as one of the greatest not only in the history of modern Jewish art but also at par with the all time great artists of the world. Reference Belarusian Fine Arts. Soutine. Available from: [Accessed 3 February, 2010]. Kleeblatt, Norman L. and Silver, Kenneth E. (1998). Chaim Soutine: An Expressionist in Paris. Prestel Publication. Olga’s Gallery. Available from: [Accessed 3 February, 2010]. Walther, Ingo F. (2002). Soutine Taschen. Read More