Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) was an expressionist
painter who was born to Jewish parents in Minsk, Russia and moved to Paris when
he was 20 years old. There he met other Jewish artists, namely, Marc Chagall
and Amadeo Modigliani who became his close friends. While in Paris and with the
Louvre at his doorstep he was able to admire the work of great artists of the
past such as Gustave Courbet and more notably Rembrandt whose paintings of
sides of beef would make an impression on Soutine and inform some of his best
known work. Soutine painted many subjects from flowers and landscapes to
portraits, all in his own style of line, aggressive brushwork and bright
colors, but his paintings of sides of beef stand out. Supposedly the artist
would hang a carcass of beef in his apartment and paint from life, much to the
dismay of his neighbors, and would keep the flesh looking fresh by pouring
blood over it. Another painting from this period is Flayed Rabbit from 1924. Keeping with his theme of viscerally
painted flesh the artist portrays a skinless rabbit with legs splayed and an
eviscerated torso laying on a white cloth. The cloth rests on a wooden cutting
board and beyond the board is a darkly painted nondescript background that adds
to the somber mood as well as everything being slightly tilted and just off
center. The picture plane is very shallow with the rabbit being pushed right to
the fore and in the viewers face. It’s hard not to draw a parallel to a
crucifixion scene or even The Flaying of
Sisamnes by Gerard David as there is a both a psychological and religious feel
to this painting as the rabbit is sacrificed for art or sustenance.
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