A Russian Jewish expressionist portrait, still life and landscape painter, Chaim Soutine lived most of his life in France, especially Paris and the district of Montparnasse. His "work is characterized by its distortions both of space and of subject matter, violence of colour and brush-stroke, making the painting a whirlwind of movement." (Phaidon)

He achieved public recognition during his lifetime, but was plagued with self-doubt about his work, especially color and form, and destroyed the majority of his paintings done between 1920 and 1929. He was reclusive about exhibitions, but in 1935 had a very successful exhibition in Chicago at the Arts Club. In 1937, his work was part of the Independent Art ex...