What art movement is Chaim Soutine associated with?

Soutine was part of the School of Paris and contributed to Expressionism. His work influenced later Abstract Expressionists like de Kooning and Pollock.

What characterized Soutine's landscape style?

His landscapes feature thick impasto, agitated brushwork, and forms that twist and rise as if caught in a maelstrom. Colors and textures dominate over realistic representation.

Where is this painting located?

Midday Landscape is in a private collection. Soutine's landscapes from the 1920s are among his most celebrated and sought-after works.

Where Is Midday Landscape? See It at Private Collection

Chaim Soutine developed his distinctive landscape style during stays in southern France between 1919 and 1925. Moving first to Céret in the Pyrenees and then to Cagnes-sur-Mer on the Riviera, he produced landscapes marked by thick impasto, agitated brushwork, and convulsive compositional rhythms. Under the pressure of internal forces, his forms spring forth twisting, masses rising as if caught in a maelstrom.

Soutine was born in Belarus and arrived in Paris in 1913, becoming part of the School of Paris alongside Modigliani and Chagall. His highly individual style, concerned more with shape, color, and texture than representation, served as a bridge between traditional approaches and Abstract Expressionism. Artists like Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock would later look to his work for inspiration.

Despite the seeming abstraction and distortions in works like this one, Soutine painted from specific locations that can often still be identified. This landscape is now in a private collection. Soutine's landscapes from the 1920s have become among his most celebrated works, prefiguring developments in American art decades later.