FIG. 3
FIG. 4
resistance to a complete union between painter and model is also felt in the way Soutine's figures "pose" before him and us, open to our penetrating scrutiny, but somehow indifferent to the artist's presence [...]. It is the tension between their seeming detachment, on the one hand, and an awareness of Soutine's personal involvement with them, on the other, that heightens the expressive charge of these figures' (ibid., pp. 509-510).
any clues as to the surrounding in which the sitter is depicted. This deliberate lack of detail takes the viewer's focus away from the potential narrative of the painting, and centres our attention to the physical and emotional power of the portrait. The energy and expressive force of LeValetde chambre is evocative of the angst-ridden self-portraits of van Gogh, as well as of his depictions of semi-anonymous sitters the artist encountered in everyday life (fig. 4).
Although Soutine painted a wide range of sitters throughout his career, the formal arrangements of these portraits remained consistent: his sitters are usually rendered seated, occasionally standing, in half-length or three-quarter-length pose. These figures, often facing frontally and clothed in formal dress, create a sense of posing, rather than a spontaneously captured likeness. LeValetdechambreis no exception: the boy is depicted frontally, seated on a stool facing the artist, dressed in his valet's uniform. Another recurring feature is the elongated shape of the head, often with a long nose, large protruding ears and deep, expressive eyes. The background, painted in deep blue tones, is bare and, apart from describing an interior setting, does not offer
eValetdechambre belonged to a number of important L collections, including Soutine’s first dealer Zborowski, the Chicago collector Leigh B. Block and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. For many years the work was in the collection of Armand Hammer, the well known Californian businessman and art collector, as well as a co-owner of the Hammer Galleries in New York. The work remained in Hammer's possession until his death in 1990, during which time it was extensively exhibited as one of the masterpieces of the collection. This and other works from his private collection formed the core of the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center in California, which opened to the public in November 1990, only weeks before Hammer's death.
Amedeo Modigliani, L ePetitpaysan, circa 1918, oil on canvas, Tate Gallery, London vincent van Gogh, L eFacteurJosephRoulin, 1888, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston FIG. 5, (opposite) Soutine at Le Blanc, 1926
FIG. 3, FIG. 4,
98