Timeline

Date

Event

1893

The artist is born Chaim-Iche Solomonovich Soutine on January 13 as the tenth of eleven children by Zalman Moiseevich & Sarah Soutine in Smilavichy, in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus). His family is Jewish.

1910-13

Soutine studies at a small arts academy in Vilnius, Lithuania.

1913

Soutine and friends Pinchus Kremegne and Michel Kikoine, emigrate to Paris, where he studies at the École des Beaux-Arts under Fernand Cormon. During his time in Paris, he befriends artist Amedeo Modigliani, who paints Soutine’s portrait several times.

1916

Paints Still Life with Herrings.

1918

Paints Self-Portrait.

1920

Paints Céret Landscape.

1922-23

Paints Pastry Chef with Red Handkerchief.

1923

In a showing arranged by the influential art dealer Paul Guillaume, the prominent American collector Albert C. Barnes bought sixty of Soutine's paintings on the spot.

1925

Paints Carcass of Beef, several versions of a beef carcass are made, which are inspired by Rembrandt’s still life on the same subject, Slaughtered Ox.

1930-35

Soutine stayed with interior designer Madeleine Castaing and her husband Marcellin in their summer home mansion of Lèves. The couple also became prominent patrons of Soutine’s work through Leopold Zborowski, art dealer for Modigliani and Soutine.

1931

Paints Woman Entering the Water.

1935

Soutine has a solo show in Chicago.

1937

Soutine has works in a group exhibition entitled The Origins and Development of International Independent Art in Paris.

1940

He becomes romantically involved with Max Ernst’s former wife, Marie-Berthe Aurenche, who would become his muse and mistress until his death.

1940

Upon the invasion of Nazis in Paris, Soutine has no choice but to flee his apartment in fear of the Gestapo, often seeking shelter in stranger’s homes or sleeping in the woods.

1943

Soutine dies on August 9 of a perforated ulcer after an emergency surgery goes wrong.