Chaim Soutine
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 91.7 x 59.7 cm (36 1/8 x 23 1/2 in.) framed: 112.7 x 81.3 cm (44 3/8 x 32 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Collection
Accession Number
1963.10.47
Art Historical Context
In 1918, as World War I drew to a close, Amedeo Modigliani his close friend and fellow artist Chaim Soutine in this striking oil-on-canvas portrait. Measuring 91.7 x 59.7 cm, the painting exemplifies Modigliani's distinctive style within the School of Paris, modernist innovation with echoes of African and classical influences. Soutine, a Belarusian-born expressionist known for his raw, visceral landscapes and figures, sits as the subject, their shared bohemian life in Montparnasse vividly evoked through Modigliani's elongated forms and almond-shaped eyes. Oil on canvas was Modigliani's prefer...
About the Artist
Amedeo Modigliani · 1884–1920
Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor whose elegant, elongated figures and portraits rank among the most instantly recognizable images in modern art. Born in Livorno, Tuscany, to a Sephardic Jewish family, he studied at the academies of Florence and Venice before moving permanently to Paris in 1906, where he immersed himself in the bohemian artistic milieu of Montmartre...