Old Woman

Chaïm Soutine, c. 1923–24

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Artist: Chaïm Soutine (Russian, 1893–1943)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: Unframed: 65 x 54 cm (25 9/16 x 21 1/4 in.)
Culture: Russia (worked in France), 20th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

In the nearly 200 portraits Chaïm Soutine painted, he was remarkably consistent in his approach:he almost always painted solitary, unidentified models, seated in half- or three-quarter-length poses facing frontally with hands placed on the hips or folded in the lap, as seen here. The physical distortions—the woman’s large hands, arched green eyebrows, and pointed chin—executed with agitated, slashing brushstrokes heighten the portrait’s expressive qualities. The sitter here is remarkably similar to the figure in another Soutine portrait of a schoolteacher named Melanie at the Columbus Museum of Art.