Chaim Soutine

Alfred Hecht, London
A gift from the above to the present owner in 1991

The canvas is lined. There are five vertical bars of retouching running across the centre of the work between 5cm. and 15cm. in length and two 1cm. by 2cm. areas of retouching to the upper left edge with surrounding spots running down the left edge. There is a 3cm. by 1cm. area of retouching to the upper right of the sky and several smaller spots of throughout the sky. There are small spots of retouching to the lower centre. All retouching is visible under UV light. This work is in fair but stable condition. Colours: Overall richer and deeper in the original.
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In 1939 Soutine spent the summer at Civy-sur-Serein, near Auxerre, and it was during this period that he began to depict children in his landscapes and the motif of tall poplar trees became common. These later works lack the dense colours that dominated the canvases of his Ceret period, but Soutine introduces a new, more dynamic element in these landscapes: a darting flick of a paint stroke that delineates foliage and suggests motion in the vast and ephemeral space.

Illness and the deteriorating political situation made the late 1930's a difficult period for Soutine, and Paysage reflects the artist's growing uncertainty about the future. The work has a foreboding air; the child in the foreground is dwarfed by the soaring poplars, creating a sense of helplessness in the face of nature. As Maurice Tuchman comments, 'in a series of landscapes painted between 1936 and the end of his life, Soutine appears to have held himself at a distance in order to paint a broader, more grandiose vision. The art of the Thirties had inspired towards a state of timelessness and permanence...Often one senses in these late works yearning for a new, safe childhood...But it must be understood that, regardless of the period, Soutine's 'hand is the dancer, following the rhythm of the disturbances of the soul'' (Maurice Tuchman, Chaim Soutine, 1893-1943 (exhibition catalogue), London, Hayward Gallery, 1982, p.69).