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100 for 100
Ben Uri: Past, Present and Future

100 for 100: Ben Uri: Past, Present and Future

Forthcoming exhibition
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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Chaïm Soutine, Jeune Servante (Waiting Maid, also known as La Soubrette), c. 1933

Chaïm Soutine 1893-1943

Jeune Servante (Waiting Maid, also known as La Soubrette), c. 1933
oil on canvas
46.5 x 40.5 cm
signed lower right: Soutine
2012-26
Photo: Bridgeman images

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Ezra Wube, Gela 2
In 'Jeune Servante (Waiting Maid)', his seventh and final portrait of a female servant in an apron, Soutine focuses on a single subject against an unadorned background, an anonymous, working-class...
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In 'Jeune Servante (Waiting Maid)', his seventh and final portrait of a female servant in an apron, 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. This painting is one of only seven Soutines in UK museum collections.

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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 Weisz

Exhibitions

1938The Tragic Painters; Alex, Reid & Lefevre Ltd

1963Modigliani / Soutine; Tate Gallery

1968Chaim Soutine; Los Angeles County Museum Of Art

1973Soutine; Marlborough Gallery

2012
Chaim Soutine and his Contemporaries - from Russia to Paris and School of London works from the Ben Uri Collection
Ben Uri Gallery

2013
Chagall, Soutine and the School of Paris: touring exhibition
Manchester Jewish Museum

2013
Selected Highlights from over 200 works acquired during 2003-2013
Ben Uri Art Gallery

2015
Out of Chaos – Ben Uri: 100 Years in London
Somerset House

2016
100 for 100: Ben Uri Past, Present & Future
Christie's South Kensington

2017
Soutine's Portraits: Cooks, Waiters & Bellboys
Courtauld Institute of Art

2018
Exodus: masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection
Bushey Museum

2018
Acquisitions and Long-Term Loan Highlights Since 2001
Ben Uri Gallery

2019
Art-exit: 1939 - A Very Different Europe
12 Star Gallery

2019
Friends and Influences: Auerbach, Freud, Kitaj, Kossoff, Bomberg; Chagall, Soutine, Marevna
Ben Uri Gallery

2020
Interstices: Discovering the Ben Uri Collection - An Online Exhibition Curated by René Gimpel
Ben Uri Gallery

2023
Art, Identity, Migration - Ben Uri at the London Art Fair
Business Design Centre

2023
Soutine / Kossoff
Hastings Contemporary

Literature

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.
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