This is the story of the unique and surprising friendship of two brilliant painters, seemingly opposite in everything, in their appearance and in their artistic style: Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine. Side by side, these two will write a major, unknown and mysterious chapter in the history of modern art. Under what circumstances did the artistic meeting between the two giants take place and how did their courageous friendship grow, which lasted, however, only five years until death separated them?
This article will focus on these five years in which Amadeo, in his thirties, and Chaim, in his twenties, painted and spent time together, in material distress and spiritual exaltation. Bohemian, did we say?
The meeting of two giants
Amedeo Modigliani was born in Tuscany, the son of a wealthy family, Soutine escaped the poverty and pogroms of a Russian shtetl. Two Jews, strangers in Paris, who before the First World War would meet and become friends in trouble and in creation. Modigliani draws inspiration from the art of the tribes of Africa, the Far East and Oceania as well as from Paul Cézanne, Soutine admires Rembrandt.
Both are interested in painting portraits, but the Italian seeks beauty, the pure line, the stylized and chiseled drawing and, to that end, lengthens the faces of his heroes, while the Russian tends towards ageless figures, bloody pieces of flesh, still lifes and fragmented landscapes.
Amadeo, beautiful as an idol, charming and a conqueror of hearts, would not abandon his friend, but would die before him, in 1920, at the age of only 36, in a hospital in Paris. His pregnant partner would commit suicide two days after his death by jumping from the window of her parents' house.
Haim, who some will describe as neglected and others as ugly, will miraculously meet an American billionaire who will buy fifty works from him. But the life of comfort, publicity and fame that the chance meeting with Albert Barnes, the redeemer from Philadelphia, gave him would not last long. The Nazi occupation and illness put an end to them. Haim will pass away in 1943, during an operation in a hospital in Paris, quite forgotten and in an extremely precarious mental, not only physical, state.
Modigliani's paintings are now fetching high prices. Who doesn't know the portraits, the nude paintings? The life of poverty, alcohol and drugs, the face of an angel, the early death, the suicide of his pregnant partner – all of these made him a legend. Amedeo Modigliani, the last of the cursed painters, led a truly bohemian life. Chaim Soutine , less famous than his author, amazing and shocking in his tormented paintings, is considered, however, the forerunner of abstract expressionism: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and even Francis Bacon are his declared heirs.
American Abstract Expressionism would not be what it is without the paintings of Chaim Soutine. Soutine's contribution to 20th century art is still not appreciated as it deserves by the general public.
Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine met in Paris in 1915, at the height of the war. The handsome Amedeo, Prince of Montparnasse, a favorite of the ladies, had been in the capital for eight years, the scion of an educated bourgeois family, who lived in a handsome house on the main street of Livorno, and recited Dante and Lautramon fluently and eloquently, while Chaim, who had arrived from a shtetl on the outskirts of Russia only two years earlier, disheveled, unkempt, shy, and reserved, still spoke stammering French.
Shared culture as Jews
Their shared Jewish culture and their commitment to their artistic calling brought the two artists closer together, who met thanks to the initiative of a third Jewish artist, the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. Modigliani and Sutin, however, came from different worlds. The former was born in 1884, in Livorno, to a wealthy family that had lost its fortune. Amedeo's health was frail and his loving mother took care of him and encouraged him to paint from an early age. After studying and traveling in Rome, Florence, Venice, Capri and Naples, the young Amedeo settled in the City of Lights.
The second, Chaim Soutine, was born in 1893, in Smilovichi, a village near Minsk, in present-day Belarus. Living conditions in the shtetl were extremely difficult, and little Chaim was born into a large family and suffered from hunger. It is said that the gifted boy painted a portrait of the village rabbi, in violation of the prohibition “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any image” (Exodus XNUMX:XNUMX). The rabbi’s son, a butcher by trade, vigorously beat the young and daring painter.
Chaim's mother obtained financial compensation from the rabbi, which enabled her to send her talented son to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vilnius. Two years later, Chaim arrived in Paris, then a city of refuge for Jews from Eastern Europe who had fled the horror of the pogroms to a country that was less anti-Semitic at the time.
All men of military age went to the front. In Paris , the sick, the disabled, and the foreigners remained. Modigliani, a foreigner and an artist, who was exempted because he was infected with tuberculosis, was apparently looked upon with a frown. Near “La Rotonde,” the mythical café at whose tables many Jewish artists gathered, people raised their fists in a cry of “Death to foreigners.” And yet, and quite paradoxically, the tolerant Paris of those days allowed its foreign artists to live and create.
But on what terms. Modigliani and Sutin rented a room together in the artists' colony in the 15th arrondissement, Cité Falguière, and there they suffered the ignominy of hunger, freezing cold, and a plague of bedbugs. These descended on them from above and made a name for themselves. Art dealers were not yet keen on unknown artists. Modigliani, who was about ten years older than Sutin, was the first to recognize his talent and took him under his wing, a loving and protective father.
The two worked, suffered, and reveled together. During that period of abject material poverty, Amadeo painted four portraits (at least) of his friend Chaim. The first, in a small format, is extremely intense. The white dots in the pupils seem to indicate rare wisdom, a capacity for vision and prophecy.
Little Haim slowly matures, gains self-confidence, and his growth is reflected in his friend's paintings. In another portrait, in a larger format, Haim is depicted, wrapped in an impressive coat, with his hands on his knees but his fingers spread out in the style of a priestly blessing.
It is not certain that Soutine would have been pleased with this representation of himself as a priest. The young man from the shtetl was, of course, steeped in Judaism, in his upbringing and sensitivity, but he was not interested in being a representative of Jewish art. This is what the art historian and curator, Marc Restellini, says in the documentary shown on French Channel 5, on which this article is based (1).
Shared enthusiasm for classical art
Not only did their shared Jewishness bring the two painters closer, but also their enthusiasm for the classical artists who preceded them. Soutine greatly loved François Clouet (1515-1572), Chardin (1699-1779), Goya (1746-1828), Corot (1796-1875), Courbet (1819-1877), but above all he admired Rembrandt (1606-1669).
Soutine would often visit the Louvre and dance passionately in front of each other's paintings, while the guards stared at him in astonishment. Rembrandt's "The Slaughtered Ox" would inspire a series of paintings, starting in 1925, the closest of which to Rembrandt's work was called by the same name.
Rembrandt's work was intended to release the scream that had been blocked in the throat of Chaim the Child when he watched his hometown's local rhythm slitting the throat of a goose with obvious pleasure. All his life, Chaim struggled to let out this stifled scream.
Soutine would later pay homage in 1931 to Rembrandt's painting depicting a woman before bathing in a river:
Chaim Soutine's version of this painting called “Woman Entering the Water” from 1931 can be found here.
And what about Modigliani? A year after Paul Cézanne's death, in 1907, 56 of his works were exhibited at the "Salon d'Automne" at the "Grand Palais" in Paris, a retrospective that left a deep mark on the artists of the generation, Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp, and others, and Modigliani was also greatly influenced by it.
The two friends find, next to each other, each their own style.
Modigliani often visited the Trocadero Museum, which at that time was filled with ancient sculptures from Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The painter was so impressed by them that he decided to fulfill his previous ambition to be a sculptor first and foremost, and even added this title to himself.
In 1908, Amedeo became acquainted with the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, whose name is pronounced Brancusi in French. Brancusi taught his friend Amedeo the basics of his art. Modigliani was inspired by sculptures from Africa, Egypt, Cambodia, the Cyclades, and the Iberian Peninsula, but he did not imitate them but mixed them, taking one element from here and another from there to create his own combination.
Modigliani sculpted with enthusiasm, but was soon forced to give up his occupation, which he saw as his calling. The stone and marble dust damaged his lungs. Amedeo, who, like Brancusi, saw sculpture as a great art, devoted himself to the field with all his heart and soul, and gave his all, was deeply disappointed.
He was only able to make thirty sculptures. The sorrow of the end of the period gnawed at him and would not let go. In the paintings that followed, the influence of sculpture is visible. In the work “Red Head,” for example, the figure’s neck seems to float and his face resembles a mask, in the style of the Fang tribe’s figurines. Slowly, and under the influence of his experience with sculpture, the artist developed his unique style, reminiscent of painted sculptures.
Chaim Soutine, next to his friend Amadeo, also finds his way. Chaim paints the poverty of everyday life. Three salted fish, this is his meal. And beyond the expression of poverty, the picture screams with its double violence: the killing of the animal and its subsequent eating. The scenes of the shtetl of his childhood left their mark on him forever.
Bohemian life in Montparnasse
Amadeo and Haim dedicate the day to work and creativity, while in the evening they go out together to hang out in the bars of Montparnasse. During World War I and between the two world wars, the Montparnasse district became an important artistic center, even more cosmopolitan than Montmartre before it.
On the terraces of cafes, Amedeo meets and lives with Pablo Picasso , Henri Matisse , Moise Kiesling, André Derain, Leonard Tsugaharu Fujita, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Jean Cocteau, André Salmon, Adolphe Basler, the muse-model-painter-singer-actress, the queen of the district, Kiki de Montparnasse, and many more.
But above all, Amadeus and his wife frequent the café-brasserie Le Rotonde. In 1911, Victor Libion bought a shoe shop and turned it into an artistic café, one of the most famous in Paris and even in the world. Victor Libion, who came to Paris from his native Auvergne, understood everything. He ordered his waiters to allow artists to sit wherever they pleased, without demanding a series of orders that they could not afford anyway.
He also displayed their works on his walls, paintings that had failed to sell anyway. Victor Livion provided the artists with a pleasant place where they could warm up, drink and eat, meet colleagues, chat, and earn a little money. Livion made the restaurant a popular place thanks to the pleasant atmosphere he created with his generous, pleasant, and captivating personality.
Modigliani, an extrovert, would sit on the terrace and sketch portraits for a franc or two to pay for his drinks. The reserved Soutine would sit in a corner and watch in silence. But despite being known as sad, tormented and silent, he and Amadeo had a lot of fun. They both drank to the point of intoxication and Chaim even admitted that one day he went so far as to wander around La Rotonde without being able to find the entrance…
Another good soul, besides Victor Livion, was the Russian painter-sculptor-designer Marie Vassilieff, a multifaceted artist, an active and successful woman, who founded an art academy, organized lectures, salons and parties, an important figure in Montparnasse, whose sought-after cloth and leather dolls she created sold for high prices in London, Berlin and New York. In 1914, Marie Vassilieff opened a popular canteen for poor artists in her studio.
For just a few cents, painters found a warm place to sit, meet colleagues, eat, and even, for a small fee, drink a glass of wine. Mary Vasilyeva's canteen, which was registered as a private club, enjoyed the right to stay open late into the night, unlike other cafes and restaurants that were forced to close their doors early due to the curfew.
Mary Vasilyeva and Osip Zadkin taught the guests to dance Russian dances, Picasso imitated, to entertain the audience, a bullfighter, a Norwegian artist played the violin, a Swedish artist played the piano (2). Artists from all over the world rubbed shoulders with local French artists, influenced them and were influenced by them – the word influence has plenty. Thus was born the “Paris School”. The conversations about the essence of art and the personal dreams of each of them were conducted with enthusiasm.
Modigliani and Sutin – Art as a Way of Life
Modigliani and Sutin both focused on the art of portraiture. Their common goal was to reflect the soul through it, but Amedeo showed its poetic sublimity through what could be defined as “beauty” while Chaim showed its tormented melancholy through what could be defined as “ugliness.”
The goal is shared but the technique is opposed. In Modigliani's work, the search for the expressions of the soul is through stylized drawing, sensual posture, purity of lines and shapes. Amedeo lengthens the neck and face, and many of his figures are surrounded by a halo of light that seems to emanate from within them, from within, and focuses the viewer's eye.
Haim's paintings, which did not require preliminary sketches, are jarring in the shock they create in the viewer. The eye darts between the spots of color and the surfaces of light, woven with a beauty that is both repulsive and attractive, vibrating in all directions, hesitating and not knowing how to enter the picture.
Amadeus's pure line became chaotic in Chaim. The latter often made his figures ugly and aged, distorting their features, even when they were in the early stages of their lives. For example, Paulette Jourdain, the secretary of the art dealer Leopold Zborowski, was painted by Chaim when she was about twenty-five years old.
Marc Restellini, who interviewed Paulette Jourdain when she was already over eighty, says that when she opened the door to her house, he saw before him the portrait that Soutine had painted about sixty years earlier. Chaim foresaw the future, and with great accuracy. Amadeo said that his friend's models were doomed to look like the painting in their later lives.
Leopold Zborowski
Leopold Zborowski, a Polish poet, arrived in Paris in 1910 and five years later became one of the most important art dealers there. Zborowski was shocked when he was exposed to Modigliani's works in 1916, in the studio of the Swiss painter Emile Lejeune, which he made available to his artist friends and in which he held exhibitions and evenings of concerts and poetry (workshop address: Emile Lejeune, Salle Huyghens, 6 rue Huyghens, 75014).
The excited Zborowski rushed to La Rotonde, where his wife and another friend were waiting for him, and declared passionately: I have seen someone who is ten times better than Picasso... Zborowski made Modigliani an offer that could not be refused: he would provide him with space, models and equipment as well as a monthly stipend, and in return, Amedeo would give him all of his works (which he was unable to sell himself anyway).
On Zborowski's advice, Amadeo began to invest in nude paintings. Leopold's solo exhibition at Berthe Weill's gallery at 46, rue Laffitte, in the 1920th arrondissement, the only one Amadeo ever had in his lifetime, in 32, included XNUMX works, four of which were nude paintings.
One of them was hung near the window and caused a crowd in the street. The district police chief demanded the removal of the paintings for moral outrage. Bertha Weil, sharp-tongued as she was, was forced to remove them. The exhibition continued, but not a single painting was sold. Zborowski's expectations of selling thanks to the scandal were unexpectedly disappointed. The nude paintings did not achieve the result the art dealer had hoped for. A scandal, yes, but no financial gain...
Amadeo, who enjoyed relative prosperity thanks to Zborowski's support, forced his benefactor to support him in life as well. Zborowski was reluctant to take under his protection the “drunken, ill-mannered painter whose clothes were not very clean.” He liked the elegant and eloquent Amadeo, but his shabby and wild friend…
It is said that Amadeo gave Chaim a lesson in manners before dinner at Zborowski's: he taught him to sit upright at the table, to eat with a fork, to avoid picking his nose in his sleeve... It is also said that Modigliani painted a portrait of Soutine on the dining room door in Zborowski's house and his wife. They were shocked by the gesture, but Amadeo reassured them: Don't worry, in a few years the door will be worth its weight in gold... Amadeo spared no effort to secure the future of his friend Chaim.
Staying in the South
The war is taking its toll, the shortages are becoming more and more noticeable, Paris is being bombed, Modigliani's health is deteriorating, his partner, the painter Jeanne Abuterne is pregnant. In 1918, Zborowski sent him, along with his partner Jeanne and his friend Chaim to the south of France , to Nice and Caen-sur-Mer. Jeanne gave birth to a daughter, also named Jeanne, the sea air and the sun are good for Amedeo's lungs, which brightens the colors of his paintings.
The light of the French Riviera reminds him of the light of Tuscany. During this break, Modigliani, at Zborowski's request and without much desire, will create the only four landscape paintings of his life, which he had previously done in two sketches.
Soutine, unlike his friend, knows no rest, travels alone, is impressed by the unfamiliar nature, paints trees tormented by the wind, tortured and distorted landscapes. The earth trembles, the landscape and houses move in circles, the echoes of war and the memories of the shtetl come together to create masterpieces, under the artist's hand. According to biographer and art critic Olivier Renault, Soutine's paintings make the viewer hear the whistles of the wind and make his soul dizzy with the horror of the violence of life.
Olivier Reno further says that Modigliani's art may seem more peaceful than Soutine's, but at the heart of both lies the same inner vertigo, to which each painter gives different expression. Modigliani and his friend Soutine live for art, there is nothing more important, and when they paint, create a world and watch it come into being, nothing else exists.
The end of Bohemia
Modigliani and Jeanne returned to Paris in 1919. Jeanne was pregnant again. Amadeo's health deteriorated and a year later, in 1920, he died in the hospital that now houses the Faculty of Medicine:
Center universitaire des Saints-Pères
5 Rue des Saints-Pères
All the artists of Montmartre and Montparnasse accompany, shocked, the coffin of “Modi” to his final resting place in the Père Lachaise cemetery . Two days later, Jeanne, eight months pregnant, jumped from the window of her parents’ fifth-floor home to her death, leaving behind a 14-month-old baby girl.
Only ten years later did Jeanne Aboutain's father give permission for her body to be transferred to Montparnasse to be laid to rest next to her partner. The baby girl left after the tragic death of her parents was adopted by Amedeo's sister, Margherita, a French teacher in Florence. Jeanne Modigliani, despite her difficult beginning, led a meaningful life, gave birth to two daughters and wrote an important biography of her father in 1958 (3).
Modi's death heralds the end of Bohemia. Chaim has lost his best friend, his loyal protector. It is said that on his deathbed, Amadeo swore to Zborowski to continue supporting Soutine, but the merchant only sought a way to get rid of him. Soutine moves between the artists' village of Céret, Cannes -sur-Mer, and Paris when an unexpected event changes his life.
American billionaire Albert Barnes, who had made his fortune as a pharmacologist, arrived in Paris in 1922 to purchase pictures for his vast collection in Philadelphia, consisting mostly of French art. Barnes was left speechless by Soutine's paintings and sent Zborowski to buy as many of his works as he could. Soutine's fortunes changed in an instant, money, fame, and publicity. The first thing he did was buy a well-tailored suit and a fancy car.
A year later, luck continued to play a role in Soutine's life when he met the wealthy Madeleine Castaing, a respected designer and antiques dealer, who, together with her husband Marcellin, bought pictures from him and supported him not only financially but also emotionally, with boundless admiration and deep friendship. Soutine spent a lot of time at the philanthropist couple's estate near Chartres.
Starting in 1941, after several years of financial well-being and relative happiness, Soutine and his partner Marie-Berthe Oranche (who had previously been Max Ernst's second wife) were forced to flee and found refuge in the Touraine region. Soutine's health continued to deteriorate, and the horror of the occupation and the war completed its work of destruction. The stomach ulcer turned into cancer. Due to his worsening condition, Soutine was rushed, two years later, in 1943, to a clinic in Paris, at 16 rue Lyautey, in the 6th arrondissement, where, on the operating table, he breathed his last.
Only a few friends, Picasso, Cocteau, Max Jacob, accompanied him on his last journey to the Montparnasse cemetery. In 1960, his partner Marie-Berthe Aubranche was buried next to him after she took her own life at the age of 54.
Modigliani achieved greater success than Soutine thanks to the tenderness, sensuality, and melancholy that emanated from his art, but those who know better are slowly beginning to recognize the greatness of Soutine, who was also one of the pillars of the “Paris School.” The last two bohemians, Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine, left behind a unique, original, and incomparable legacy. In their five years of courageous friendship, they shared a life of material hardship and intense debauchery, but above all, they both burned with the vibrant fire of creation to which they dedicated their short lives.
(1) France 5, Passage des arts, Modigliani-Soutine, derniers bohèmes de Montparnasse, diffused le sam. 02.03.19 à 22h30, directed by Catherine Aventurier
(2) Mary Vasilieff's workshop, “Villa Mary Vasilieff”, formerly the Montparnasse Museum, now serves as an “art and research center.”
Villa Marie Vassilieff
Montparnasse
21 avenue du Maine
75015 Paris
33 (0) 1 43 25 88 32
(3) Jeanne Modigliani, Modigliani sans légende, Gründ, 1961
And in a new and expanded edition:
Jeanne Modigliani, Amedeo Modigliani, a biography, Olbia, 1998
Interested in deepening your knowledge of Modigliani's work?
You are invited to watch Kinneret Zohar-Lahav's lecture, A Navigation Map to the Artistic Universe of Amedeo Modigliani.
Want to read more about the great painters of France?
Here are some other articles that may interest you:
- Montparnasse – A walking tour following the bohemian side of Paris
- Montparnasse Cemetery – the resting place of intellectuals and artists
- The Gold and the Clay: The Life Story of Camille Claudel By Dr. Orna Lieberman
- Picasso – A Parisian Trip Between Montmartre and the Marais
- Henri Matisse – Paris Itinerary
And if all this wasn't enough for you, you are welcome to check out the other articles on the site that deal with French art.
More on the subject
A fascinating and enriching article by Dr. Orna Lieberman. Congratulations on winning!
Thank you, dear Einat, I am blessed to have readers and responders like you!!!
Thank you for the escapism and the enriching knowledge, as usual, it was fascinating.
Thank you very much for the wonderful article. It makes me want to delve deeper into the subject and see the works of Modigliani and Sutin.
Thank you very much for your response. You made me very happy.
Fascinating. Thank you.
A fascinating, beautifully written and enriching article. Thank you very much!
Wonderful article. I enjoyed reading it.
Thank you very much Maya, Limor, Kochava Bar-El
I'm glad you enjoyed it and that you made me happy on that occasion.
Hi Orna,
I stumbled upon your fascinating posts, and would like to talk to you about the topic you are currently dealing with.
Is it possible?
Intriguing days,
Shula Modan
I'm very happy that more and more people are reading my articles even long after they were published. Thank you to Shula for your interest. Thank you to all the readers.
An interesting article, written in a fascinating way and presenting the topic in a nice way. Thank you!
The article was published again today, August 21, 2021, after several renovations and upgrades, on the occasion of two related exhibitions, one at the Tel Aviv Museum and the other at the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris.
Exhibit A
Exhibition in
Neta Moser's response:
The article on Modigliani and Sutin is excellent, well-structured, fascinating and gives a very human picture of both of them.
The Jewish Picasso
For the estimated birthday of Chaim Soutine, the “Jewish Picasso,” which falls on January 13, that is, today, Zvi Hazanov re-uploaded my article, revised and upgraded, about the friendship of the two giant bohemians from Montparnasse, Soutine and Modigliani. And this is the opening I wrote for the re-upload in 2022:
Modigliani has always attracted attention, but interest in Soutine, who was somewhat forgotten, has been growing in recent years. In November 2019, an important exhibition opened at the Ein Harod Art Center called “Naked Soul: The Life of Soutine and Israeli Art.” The exhibition featured 18 paintings by Soutine, gathered from museums and private collections in Israel and around the world, and shone a spotlight on three generations of Israeli art under his influence.
In September 2021, an exhibition opened at the Orangerie Museum in Paris, presenting a dialogue between Chaim Soutine and the American painter born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Willem de Kooning:
Chaïm Soutine / Willem de Kooning, la peinture incarnée
This is the name of the exhibition, which can be translated: “Chaim Soutine/Willem de Kooning, Painting Becomes Flesh.”
Fifty paintings by the two artists, on one side Soutine and on the other side de Kooning. Fifty years separate them, but the influence of the former on the latter is decisive: “I have always been crazy about Soutine,” de Kooning declared, “for all his paintings.” If you missed the exhibition, the Orangerie Museum is rich in Soutine’s paintings in its permanent collection.
A dialogue between Soutine and his successors, a dialogue between Soutine and his contemporaries. We will now return to the dialogue between Soutine and Modigliani, a courageous friendship and constant mutual artistic influence.
Link to selected excerpts from an excellent monograph on Modigliani.
Dror Tal,
Drew Tal, artist, wrote:
I read the article about Modigliani and Sutin with great curiosity and interest.
As usual, I enjoy the flow of your writing. One sentence flows into the next, without a moment's pause. I read the entire article in one breath. Without the desire or ability to stop for a moment. Even where you mentioned a link to the painting "Woman Entering the Water," I didn't stop. I told myself I would do it after reading the entire article. I just flowed forward.
You covered two life stories in depth, in a matter-of-fact, fascinating, intriguing, and satisfying way.
I learned a lot.
thanks for sharing.
Orna:
Thank you, Dror, for the detailed and warm response. A compliment from you – a huge honor.
Orna, the wonderful one, we enjoy every review you give. My wife, Yehudit, and Roni are both non-commercial painters. We are art lovers, and the lives of the great painters are very fascinating. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for the strong compliment. All the best!