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Artworks
Chaïm Soutine
Jeune Servante (Waiting Maid, also known as La Soubrette), c. 1933oil on canvas46.5 x 40.5 cmlower right: SoutinePhoto: Bridgeman imagesIn Jeune Servante (Waiting Maid) Soutine focuses on a single subject against an unadorned background, an anonymous, working-class figure in uniform painted with typically expressive and tactile brushwork. The painting...In Jeune Servante (Waiting Maid) Soutine focuses on a single subject against an unadorned background, an anonymous, working-class figure in uniform painted with typically expressive and tactile brushwork. The painting also has a second title, La Soubrette (referring to a coquettish character derived from operetta), which - possibly to encourage sales - was given when the work was offered for sale in London in 1938 in a show entitled The Tragic Painters at Alex, Reid & Lefevre Ltd., when it was also dated to c.1925, although the original title seems closer to the artist's intentions. Working direct from the life, Soutine captured an expression somewhere between weariness, wariness and submission, but drew attention to the maid’s inner life by emphasising her individuality. His virtuoso paint handling illuminates her white apron with a dazzling display of colour. This portrait relates to Soutine’s series of powerful character studies of pastry cooks, choirboys, boot boys, bell-boys and maids, dressed in the uniforms of their professions, in exaggerated poses ranging from awkwardness to arrogance. From the 1930s Soutine’s figure paintings became less frenzied and more meditative. La Soubrette was unveiled in 2012 at the exhibition, From Russia to Paris: Chaïm Soutine and his Contemporaries. It is one of only seven Soutines in British museum collections.Provenance
acquired in 2012 with the assistance of the HLF, Art Fund, the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, Miriam and Richard Borchard, Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly, Patsy & David Franks, Morven and Michael Heller, Joan and Lawrence Kaye (USA), Laura and Lewis Kruger (USA), Agnes & Edward Lee, Simon Posen (USA), The Marc Rich Foundation (Switzerland), Anthony Rosenfelder & family in honour of Marilyn, Jayne Cohen and Howard Spiegler (USA), and Judit & George WeiszExhibitions
Soutine's Portraits: Cooks, Waiters & Bellboys;Chaim Soutine and his Contemporaries - from Russia to Paris;Chagall, Soutine and the School of Paris;The Tragic PaintersLiterature
Sarah MacDougall ed., 'Interstices - Discovering the Ben Uri Collection Guest curated by René Gimpel' (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2020), pp. 54-55.; Rachel Dickson and Sarah MacDougall, eds., 'Out of Chaos: Ben Uri; 100 Years in London' (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2015) pp. 74-75.