Russian painter
Chaïm Soutine
was born,
January 13, 1893
in Smilavichy in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire
(present-day Belarus)
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Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. His work was characterized by the use of thick impasto, agitated brushwork, convulsive compositional rhythms, and the presence of disturbing psychological content.
Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the works of Rembrandt, Chardin and Courbet, Soutine developed an individual style more concerned with shape, color, and texture over representation, which served as a bridge between more traditional approaches and the developing form of Abstract Expressionism.
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So here’s a glimpse of his work & few words
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“Ah, the giant that is Rembrandt; he’s God, he’s God!”
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“It is the first time in my life that I have not been able to do anything. I am in a bad state of mind and I am demoralized, and that influences me. I have only [made] seven canvases. I am sorry. I wanted to leave Cagnes, this landscape that I cannot endure. I even went for a few days to Cap Martin, where I thought of settling down. It displeased me. I had to rub out the canvases I started… I am in Cagnes again, against my will, where, instead of landscapes, I shall be forced to do some miserable still lifes. You will understand in what a state of indecision I am. Can’t you suggest some place for me? Because, several times I have had the intention of returning to Paris.”
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“You don’t like my painting, you only want to help me. If you had given me one franc for my picture I would have taken it [when M. Castaing discovered his art for the very first time and offered him in advance 100 franc to make a new painting]”
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“I never touched Cubism myself, you know, although I was attracted by it one time. When I was painting at Céret and at Cagnes [1919, and from 1923]. I yielded to its influence in spite of myself, and the results were not entirely banal. But then… Céret itself is anything but banal. There is so much foreshortening in the landscape that, for that very reason, a picture may seem to have been painted in some specific style”
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“I want to show Paris in the carcass of an ox.”
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“Once I saw the village butcher [in his youth, in Russia] slice the neck of a bird and drain the blood out of it. I wanted to cry out, but his joyful expression caught the sound in my throat… This cry, I always feel it there. When, as I drew a crude portrait of my professor, I tried to rid myself of this cry, but in vain. When I painted the beef carcass it was still this cry that I wanted to liberate. I have still not succeeded.”
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“You have no right to interfere with my art. Your wife is not your property. I need her, in order to finish my picture, I must have her! I will sue you! [the woman returned by persuasion of the Castaings who supported Soutine].”
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Soviet Russian cellist
Daniil Borisovich Shafran [1923-1997]
was also born on this day,
January 13, 1923
so we listen to him play his beloved Antonio Amati cello in
Dmitri Shostakovich
Cello Sonata in D minor, Op 40
Dmitri Shostakovich, piano
Recorded live, November 1946
00:00 Allegro non troppo
12:19 Allegro
15:49 Largo
24:47 Allegro
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For more information on Soutine:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/chaim-soutine-1971
https://www.moma.org/artists/5543
https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en/artist/chaim-soutine
https://thejewishmuseum.org/index.php/exhibitions/chaim-soutine-flesh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cha%C3%AFm_Soutine
Marina Kanavaki 
thank you for introducing this artist as my knowledge is not very broad! I was struck by the still life art Soutine did at first before he went further into the distortions and “convulsive compositional rhythms”
Seemingly the idiot is made for laughter though: “I am a fool with a heart but no brains, and you are a fool with brains but no heart; and we’re both unhappy, and we both suffer.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot ”
As a Jew he did well to leave Russia but then Paris too became unsafe – his bleeding carcass paintings were eerily predictive of his haemorrhagic death by perforated ulcer
Thank YOU, my dear Laura for taking this short journey to this painter’s work with me. I also thought of Dostoevsky’s Idiot! 😉
You’re right about the bleeding carcass… which makes me wonder about the power of our thoughts.
I think we see more than we know!
We do!
“The Idiot” is still making me laugh!
It seems like a self portrait in ways.
The portraits by Amedeo Modigliani are fabulous!
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I love Modigliani portraits!!!!
True… on the Idiot!
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Most of these are quite disturbing.They seem to come from a dark place.
It does seem so yet I find them beautiful!
They are compelling. It was hard to look away from some of them.
Oh, yes!!!!
The music went very well with the art, at times.
Such a unique artist, although not really my cup of tea.
However, I burst out laughing when I came upon “The Idiot” LOLOLOLOL
and I like “Gladioli”, which I thought was his only pretty painting.
Speaking of paintings, the 2 you sent me are in the post Holly and I just made for you. Hope you live it!
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I don’t know what to say with what you created with your partner in crime. You left me in tears this morning!
Love you!
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forgot to mention Hera, who was also overjoyed and sends slobbery kisses and hasn’t stopped wagging her tail since!
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Love you, too!
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I want to answer more comments on the most well received post, but I have t work for a bit. Then I can enjoy more comments and visit more pals! xoxoxoxo
More love back and don’t worry, nobody’s going anywhere!!!!!
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xoxoxo woof!
Meowoof 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘
Soutine may have been born in Smilavichy but smiles aren’t what his pictures of dead animals and raw meat are intended to elicit.
I didn’t know that Soutine painted any nudes. An online article says the one you showed is the only one he ever painted.
Indeed they aren’t! 😉
Thank you for mentioning that about his …nudes! He wouldn’t have done ‘badly’ though, would he?! 😉