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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

Rokubin Hayashi, Tokyo.

Exhibition History

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

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.

1964

[Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Nakajima Sports Center of Hokkaido Prefecture, Sapporo, 22 August 1964 - 13 September 1964, cat. no. 57

1978

[Tour Exhibition] Masterpieces from the National Museum of Western Art, The Art Center of Oita Prefecture, Oita, 20 December 1978 - 31 January 1979, cat. no. 56

1979

French paintings at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in Japanese collections, Hermitage, Leningrad, 1979 - 1979, Vilnius Museum, Vilnius; Puschkin Museum, Moscow, 1979, cat. no. 49

1981

Chaim Soutine, 1893-1943, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster, 13 December 1981 - 28 February 1982, Kunsthalle Tübingen, 26 March 1981-31 May 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

, The Urasoe Art Museum, 1 February 1991 - 31 March 1991, cat. no. 39, col. repr.

1995

[Tour Exhibition] Painting: Tradition and Innovation, Yatsushiro Municipal Museum, Yatsushiro, 14 January 1995 - 5 February 1995, cat. no. 38

1995

[Tour Exhibition] Painting: Tradition and Innovation, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, Himeji, Himeji City Museum of Art, 11 February 1995 - 12 March 1995, cat. no. 38

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

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.

Bibliography

1929

Faure, E. Soutine. Paris, 1929, no. 8

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, repr.

1971

Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 96, repr.

1972

Courhtion, Pierre. Soutine: peintre du déchirant. [Lausanne], 1972, col. repr. p. 46, p. 213 (fig. C)

1973

Cogniat, Raymond. Soutine. New York, Crown Publishers, 1973, repr. p. 32

1975

Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 74, repr.

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.

1979

The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 262, repr.