(Smilovitchy, 1893–1943 Paris)
La Femme en rouge au fond bleu, around 1928, signed Soutine, oil on canvas, 75.5 x 54.9 cm, framed

Provenance:
Jos. Hessel, Paris
Jacques Laroche, Paris
Georges Keller, New York & Davos (acquired by 1943)
Carroll Carstairs Gallery, New York (acquired by 1949)
Mr. & Mrs. Walter Ross, New York (acquired from the above
by 1957 and sold:
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, October 21, 1964, lot 38)
McRoberts & Tunnard Gallery, London (acquired at the above sale)
Perls Galleries, New York (label on the reverse, acquired by
1967 and until 1972)
Alex Maguy, Paris (label on the reverse, acquired by 1972 and until 1973)
Private Collection, Japan (and sold:
Sotheby’s New York, November 5, 1981, lot 233)
Perls Galleries, New York (acquired at the above sale and until 1985)
Acquired from the above in 1985

Exhibited:
New York, Bignou Gallery, A Selection of Paintings of the Twentieth Century, 1943, no. 16 (titled The Red Dress)
New York, Bignou Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings by Soutine, 1943,
no. 15 (titled The Red Dress)
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Manet to Matisse. An Exhibition of 19th and 20th Century French Paintings, 1949, no. 39 (titled Femme en rouge and dated 1932)
New York, Perls Galleries, 24 Major Acquisitions, 1968, no. 21, ill. in color on the cover (titled Jeune femme au fond bleu and dated 1928)
New York, Perls Galleries, Chaim Soutine (1893–1943), 1969, no. 18,
ill. in color in the catalogue (dated 1928)
Paris, Alex Maguy, Présence de la peinture, 1972
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1996, n. n. ill. in color in the catalogue

Literature:
Connoisseur, vol. 172, London, no. 693, November 1969, ill. p. ccxvii
Pierre Courthion, Soutine. Peintre du déchirant, Lausanne, 1972, ill.
p. 258 (titled La Femme du Cordonnier II and dated 1926–27)
A. Soutine, L’Amateur d’Art (exh. cat.), 1973, ill. p. 14
The Evelyn Sharp Collection (exh. cat.), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1978, discussed p. 90
Maurice Tuchman, Esti Dunow & Klaus Perls, Chaim Soutine:
Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, Cologne, 1993, no. 123 ill. in color p. 692
IFAR Journal, vol. 10, no. 3/4, 2008/09, listed p. 57 & ill.

Chaim Soutine’s paintings burst with immediacy and emotion. On account of his powerful sense of gesture, his intense expression in bold, vivid surfaces, his passion for the structure and texture of flesh, and the tendency to dissolve volume into flatness, many scholars have described the artist as a Paris-based Expressionist. Born near Minsk in 1893, Soutine was the tenth of eleven children, the son of a Jewish tailor. During his early years in Paris he lived in abject poverty and worked from a derelict studio in Montparnasse. Though formally influenced by Van Gogh, Cezanne, El Greco, and later Rembrandt and Courbet, as well as his close friend Modigliani, he developed a signature innovative style focused on still-life objects painted from nature, emphasising shape, colour and texture over representation.

Soutine’s financial status began to improve after the American collector, Albert Barnes, had discovered and purchased a large number of his works in the mid-1920s, and from then on portraiture became more important for the artist. Paintings from that period – and his mature work in general – place the emphasis on his subjects and are distinguished by considered brushstrokes and more cautious, harmonious, structurally balanced shapes. Figures are mostly depicted in half-profile or three-quarter view, at close range, at the centre of the picture. Soutine concentrated on a few variables and more reductive compositional schemes, applying a kind of template from which he generated a great deal of variation and nuance. He preferred to portray sitters he did not know but gave much thought to their personalities and concentrated on their deeper, individual characteristics.

The portrait “Woman in red against blue background” is typical of Soutine’s unique approach as a portraitist. It’s fascinating, largescale composition features clear contours and impasto brushwork with red and blue hues. The self-contained shape of the female body and curve of the figure’s upper arms draw attention to the woman’s facial expression and hands folded in her lap. While her slightly lowered gaze and watchful eyes exude a peaceful, pensive mood, her calm, unflappable personality stands in stark contrast to the lively, more agitated brushwork in the background, which lends a particular dynamism to the painting.

“I think I would choose Chaim Soutine...I’ve always been crazy about Soutine – all of his paintings. Maybe it’s the lushness of the paint. He builds up a surface that looks like a material, like a substance. There’s a kind of transfiguration, a certain fleshiness in his work... I remember when I first saw the Soutine’s in the Barnes Collection...the Matisse’s had a light of their own, but the Soutine’s had a glow that came from within the paintings – it was another kind of light.”
Willem de Kooning