Chaïm Soutine

In collaboration with the Musée de l’Orangerie, the Pushkin Museum is inviting the Russian public to discover the importance, career and influence of Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943), one of the most eminent representatives of the Ecole de Paris.
The exhibition seeks to emphasise the roots of the creations of this French painter of Russian-Lithuanian origin who moved to Paris in 1912. Soutine’s works reflect the many hours spent studying the paintings of the great masters at the Louvre. His love for 17th century French artists in particular directly inspired the richness of his palette, while the masters of the 18th century guided his ideas on composition.
Soutine painted in a style similar to that of Expressionism and in series, focusing in turn on diverse themes such as landscapes, gladioli, game hunting, fowl, people in service and altar boys with spectacular distortions.
Soutine undoubtedly influenced an entire generation of painters, and even shaped a new movement in international contemporary art. Indeed, between 1923 and 1964, the exhibitions dedicated to him in the United States, primarily in the galleries and museums of New York, had a powerful impact on American painting. Works by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, as well as Russian artists like Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, will enter into a dialogue with the Expressionist works of Soutine.