Mad Woman|Chaïm Soutine |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 18 April 2025

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On Display

Permanent collection

Chaïm Soutine

smilovitch, 1893 - Paris, 1943

Mad Woman

Date	1920
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	96 x 60
Inscriptions	Signed lower right: Soutine
Credit Line	Donated by Mr. Tai Hayashi
Standard ref.	Tuchman/Dunow/Perls II 32
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1960-0001

In spite of the fact that Soutine's figure paintings, like his depictions of other subjects, are characterized by extremely deformed, violent brush work and strident color contrasts, they are extremely deft in their visualization of the individuality and character of their subjects. A weak youth, the sun-burned face of a farm wife, a proud woman of the elite, and the timid servant, such are his images. In Mad Woman, the wide-eyed stare, drawn face, stiffly tensed shoulders and arms, and wildly disheveled hair all give a sense of weird tension to the composition. This impression is further heightened by the woman's red clothing and the rough brushwork. In contrast to Chagall, who was also raised in a Jewish community, and Chagall's nostalgia for his people and hometown, Soutine, possibly because of a persecution complex born of the poverty and oppression of his childhood, was always violent in his expression of the erupting ugliness of the world. His figure paintings anticipate those of Francis Bacon, who depicted "Mankind in the hell of one's own circumstances." Soutine's deformation of materials until they become the subject themselves were precedents for the Informalist artist, Jean Fautrier. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.114)

Provenance

Shigetaro Fukushima; Rokubin Hayashi, Tokyo; Donated by Mr. Tai Hayashi, Tokyo, 1960.

Exhibition History

1948: Dai 2 kai Taisei Meiga Ten, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 25 February 1948 - 15 March 1948, Tokyo National Museum, 17 - 26 March 1948
1953: Steps of modern painting, Europe and Japan, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1 February 1953 - 15 April 1953, cat. no. 110, fig. 45
1953: Exhibition of Occidental Renowned Paintings, Fujikawa Gallery, Osaka, 3 November 1953 - 29 November 1953, cat. no. 27, repr.
1955: Catalogue de l’exposition de l’ancienne collection Fukushima, Bridgestone Museum of Art, 5 April 1955 - 1 May 1955, Ohara Museum of Art, 1955年5月10日-5月31日, cat. no. 66, repr.
1955: Great Masters in Their Twenties, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 16 June 1955 - 24 July 1955
1958: Exposition universelle et internationale de Bruxelles, 50 ans d'art moderne, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 17 April 1958 - 21 July 1958, cat. no. 308, pl.78, repr.
1966: Catalogue de l’exposition de l’ancienne collection Fukushima, Bridgestone Museum of Art, 19 April 1966 - 29 May 1966, cat. no. 44, repr.
1979: French paintings at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in Japanese collections, Hermitage, Leningrad, 0 1979 - 0 1979, Vilnius Museum, Vilnius; Puschkin Museum, Moscow, 1979, cat. no. 49, repr.
1981: Chaim Soutine, 1893-1943, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster, 13 December 1981 - 28 February 1982, Kunsthalle Tübingen, 26 March-31 May 1982; Hayward Gallery, London, 17 July-22 August 1982; Kunstmuseum Luzern, 31 August-31 October 1982, cat. no. 17, repr. (as "Frau in Rot")
1984: Exposition l'Ecole de Paris : les peintres de la tristesse mélancolique et de la poésie éternelle, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, 4 October 1984 - 4 November 1984, cat. no. 49, col. repr.
1988: Perspective of 20th Century Paintings, Nagoya City Art Museum, 23 April 1988 - 19 June 1988, cat. no. 12, col. repr.
1988: Modigliani et ses Amis, Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, 23 September 1988 - 6 November 1988, cat. no. 48, col. repr.
1989: Paris: 1920's, Meguro Museum of Art, 2 November 1989 - 10 December 1989, cat. no. 105, col. repr.
1991: Yoroppa Kindai Kaiga no Nagare, The Urasoe Art Museum, 1 February 1991 - 31 March 1991, cat. no. 39, col. repr.
1996: The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 94, repr.
2002: The Unfinished Century : Legacies of 20th Century Art, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 16 January 2002 - 10 March 2002, cat. no. 134, col. repr.
2017: Life: In Search of a Paradise, Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design, 26 August 2017 - 5 November 2017, cat. no. 5-4
2022: Amedeo Modigliani, Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, 9 April 2022 - 18 July 2022, cat. no. 2-28, col. repr.
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 12 March 2024 - 12 May 2024

Bibliography

1929: Faure, E. Soutine. Paris, 1929, no. 8.
1958: Les Arts: Exposition universelle et international de Bruxelles.1958, (Le Memorial officiel), p.19, repr.
1958: Country Life, Brussels Exhibition Supplement, 1 May 1958, p. 21, repr. p. 19, fig. 6.
1958: Choay, Françoise. 50 ans d’art moderne à Bruxelles. L’Œil, no. 40, April 1958, (special number), p.108.
1959: Langui, Emile. Fifty Years of Modern Art. New York, 1959, p. 158, no. 299, repr.
1961: Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-301, col. repr. n. p.
1964: Les soixante chefs-d'oeuvers du musee national d'art occidental Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1964(Japanese), no. 59, repr. n. p.
1967: Feldman, Edmund Burke. Art as Image and Idea. Englewood Cliffs, 1967, repr. p. 20, col. repr. p. 313.
1971: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 96, repr. n. p.
1972: Courthion, Pierre. Soutine: peintre du déchirant. [Lausanne], 1972, col. repr. p. 46, p. 213 (fig. C).
1973: Cogniat, Raymond. Soutine. New York, Crown Publishers, 1973, p. 32, col. repr.
1973: Soutine: l'exposition du peintre de la fatalité - fureur passionnée. (exh. cat.). Tokyo, 1973, (Japanese and French), col. repr.
1975: Modifliani and the School of Paris. Tokyo, 1975, (Grand Collection of World Art, vol. 24), p.134, no. 28, col. repr.
1975: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 74, repr. n. p.
1977: Werner, Alfred. Chaim Soutine. New York, Harry N. Abrams ,1977, p. 80, pl. 8.
1978: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1978 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 78, repr. n. p.
1979: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 262, repr.
1981: Chaim Soutine, 1893-1943 (exh. cat.). Güse, Ernst-Gerhard. Stuttgart, Gerd Hatje, 1981, pp. 160, 241, cat. no. 17, repr.
1982: Neve, C. Country Life. London, 5 August 1982, p. 379, fig. 4, repr.
1983: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1983 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 84, repr. n. p.
1984: Le catalogue de l'exposition l'Ecole de Paris: les peintres de la tristesse mélancolique et de la poésie éternelle (exh. cat.). Musée d'Art Moderne de Gunma, ed. [Takasaki], Musée d'Art Moderne de Gunma, 1984, cat. no. 49, col. repr.
1986: Kraft, Hartmut. Grenzgänger zwischen Kunst und Psychiatrie. Köln, DuMont, 1986, p. 101, fig. 37, repr.
1987: Chaim Soutine: 1891 - 1943; i dipinti della Collezione Castaing. (exh. cat.). Milan, March - April 1987; Galleria Bergamini, 1987, repr.
1988: Perspective of 20th Century Paintings: Inaugural Exhibition (exh. cat.). Nagoya City Art Museum, ed. [Nagoya], Nagoya City Art Museum, 1988, pp.42, 322, cat. no. 12, col. repr.
1988: Modigliani et ses amis (exh. cat.). Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, ed. [Kasama], Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, 1988, cat. no. 48, col. repr.
1989: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1989, (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English, p.108, no. 103, col. repr.
1989: Paris: 1920's (exh. cat.). The Japan Association of Art Museums; Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, ed. [Tokyo], The Japan Association of Art Museums, 1989, pp. 107-108, 165, cat. no. 105, col. repr.
1991: Europe Kindai Kaiga no Nagare: Millet kara Picasso e (exh. cat.). Endo, Norie, ed. [Urazoe], The Urazoe Art Museum Kaikan 1shunen Kinen Tokubetsuten Jikkoiinkai, 1991, pp. 58, 92-93, cat. no. 39, col. repr.
1993: Tuchman, Maurice; Dunow, Esti; Perls, Klaus. Chaim Soutine (1893-1943): catalogue raisonné. Köln, 1993, (vol. 2), pp. 566-67, col. repr.
2002: The Unfinished Century: Legacies of 20th Century Art (exh.cat.). National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, ed. [Tokyo], Yomiuri Shimbun, 2002
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 114, col. repr.
2013: Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 120, col. repr.
2017: Life: In Search of a Paradise (exh. cat.). Ito, Masatoshi, ed. Tokyo, My Book Service Inc., 2017, pp. 149, 317, cat. no. 5-4, col. repr.
2022: Amedeo Modigliani (exh. cat.). Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka; Yomiuri Shimbun, Osaka; Osaka Yomiuri Service, eds. Osaka, Yomiuri Shimbun, Osaka, 2022, pp. 76, 145, 198, cat. no. 2-28, col. repr.
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years (exh. cat.). Shinfuji, Atsushi; Mochizuki, Kaoru, eds. [Tokyo], Culture Convenience Club; Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 2024, pp. 144, 305, col. repr.

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