13.01.1983 – 09.08.1943

Artist of the Paris School, a native of the Russian Empire, was born in Smilovichi, near Minsk, in a poor Jewish family on January 13, 1893. At the age of 14, Khaim entered apprenticeship to the Minsk photographer and retoucher, and in 1910 – left for Vilna, where he studied for three years at the School of Fine Arts. In 1913 Soutine moved to Paris, where he studied for some time at the Academy of Fine Arts. The first years in the capital of France were for Haim Sutin especially difficult, he settled in the famous “Hive” – ​​a haven for beggar artists.

Almost turned out, purple-bloody carcasses – a story that brought Soutine the greatest fame. Aggressive colors, a dramatic contrast of red and dark tones, a broken, distorted perspective – the artist’s works are recognizable at first sight, they fascinate and repel at the same time.

Chaim Soutine liked to paint portraits, but his manner of writing did not imply the possibility of creating a ceremonial portrait, for which the public was ready to spread money, and he himself preferred a different nature: touching, sweet, absurd, beyond the bourgeois norm, children, old women, insane , beggars. In their imperfection, he saw a special tenderness and beauty.

The Jew, writing pictures, far from the academic standard, certainly did not have a chance under the Hitler regime. The Germans, entering in 1940 in Paris, announced a hunt for Chaim Soutine and his paintings, the artist was forced to hide. In March 1941, the artist moved to Champin-sur-Ved, where he will spend the last two years of his life, only occasionally traveling to Paris secretly. On August 9, 1943, Chaim Soutin died in a hospital in Paris, the day after the operation, due to an acute attack of peptic ulcer.