Chaïm Soutine

Galerie Percier, Paris
Perls Galleries, New York (acquired by 1952-53)
Bertram N. Linder, Dalton, Pennsylvania (acquired from the above in 1953 and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 7, 1977, lot 78)
Christian Fayt, Belgium 
Sale: Christie's, New York, October 31, 1978, lot 26
A. Alfred Taubman, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired from the estate of the above by the present owner

New York, Perls Galleries, Modern French Paintings, 1952, no. 175
Venice, XXVI Biennale di Venezia, 1952, no. 6
Providence, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Chaïm Soutine: 1893-1943, 1953
New York, Perls Galleries, Modern French Paintings, 1953, no. 190
West Bloomfield, Michigan, Janice Charach Epstein Museum Gallery at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit, The Art of Collecting II - Fine Art Created by Jewish Artists, 1992
Céret, Museé d'Art Moderne de Céret, Soutine in Céret, 1919-1922, 2000, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Cologne, Galerie Gmurzynska, The Impact of Chaïm Soutine: De Kooning, Pollack, Dubuffet, Francis Bacon, 2001-02

New York Times, November 8, 1953, illustrated 
Alfred Werner, "New York-Soutine: Affinity for an Alien World" in Art Digest, vol. 28, November 15, 1953, illustrated p. 17
Robert M. Coates, "The Art Galleries: Soutine and Modigliani" in The New Yorker, vol. 29, November 21, 1953, no. 40, illustrated p. 106
Pierre Courthion, Soutine: Peinture du Déchirant, Lausanne, 1972, no. F, illustrated p. 205
Esti Dunow, Klaus Perls & Maurice Tuchman, Chaïm Soutine, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Cologne, 1993, no. 40, illustrated in color p. 152

Condition Report completed by Simon Parkes This painting has not been recently restored. The canvas has been lined using wax as an adhesive. The stretcher is older than the lining and may be from the pre-War period. The paint layer is dirty and would respond to a light cleaning. Under ultraviolet light, a small retouch in a diagonal branch in the tree in the center is visible. A few spots in the upper left quadrant in the darker colors may also have received tiny dots of retouching. These are all very minor. There are two losses to the left of the pair of windows in the upper right that are unretouched. There is a possible loss above the diagonal yellow area on the lower left edge. On the left edge and extending into the picture by 1 ½ inches there is a thin depression, but it does not appear to be a cut in the canvas. Wax linings are not ideal and this lining should be reexamined at some point. If the picture were cleaned it would become brighter, but the picture could also be hung in its current condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Characterized by powerful strokes of bold color, this landscape exemplifies Soutine's expressive potential as a landscapist. In 1919 Leopold Zborowski, the art dealer who championed the works of both Soutine and Modigliani, encouraged Soutine to leave Paris for the small town of Céret in the Pyrenees. The "Céret Period" of 1919 to 1921 constitutes what was the most prolific period of production in the artist's career.  The approximately 200 works executed at this time are characterized by a powerfully expressionist style which, in its distortions, approaches abstraction. In a discussion of the Céret works, Monroe Wheeler stated, "The vehement and idiosyncratic style that he developed there shocked all of Soutine's contemporaries... It is as though this young man of thirty years ago felt that he had a world-shaking message... The landscapes of the Pyrenees seem, indeed, to be shaken by some cosmic force; the architecture becomes flexible and billows like a canvas, the trees reel and stumble about, and the colors seem to have been wrested hungrily from the spectrum; his palette seemed to enter the dance with his forms, the color of one whirling away with the form of another" (quoted in Soutine (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1950, p. 50).