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Lot Essay
Painted circa 1920, L'arc-en-ciel, Céret is one of Soutine's early great landscapes from his Céret period, and is his largest. Indeed, this picture is in a format and scale unique amongst Soutine's landscapes: the catalogue raisonné cites only a couple of other pictures of this genre that exceed a metre either in height or in width. The scale speaks of a bravura in his work, of a new-found confidence. This is a colourist celebration that already shows the artist discarding the dark palette that had hung over his earlier works. The swirling brushstrokes with which Soutine has captured the landscape appear reminiscent of Van Gogh in part, or even his adored El Greco. However, they are filled with a vibrant energy that is uniquely and unmistakeably Soutine's own. The landscape jostles with life, a life that has been imparted as much through the rhythms of the forms themselves as through the gestural application of the paint. The rainbow itself is-- for Soutine-- an uncharacteristically optimistic feature in this landscape.
Soutine had stayed in Paris for years before he finally was sent to Céret by his friend and dealer, Zborowski. There, he found himself exposed to a whole new realm of visual stimuli and relished the chance to capture these scenes of life and nature in his oils. However, his long hours spent in the public galleries of Paris had by no means been forgotten-- there is a classical quality to L'arc-en-ciel, Céret that recalls the paintings of certain Old Masters. While L'arc-en-ciel, Céret is reminiscent of certain works by Ruisdael and Rubens, it also appears to bear some compositional similarities to Millet's painting Le printemps, in the Musée d'Orsay, leading the viewer to wonder if Soutine's visual memory had been triggered by the scene before him.
Having belonged to Raoul Pellequer during the 1920s, L'arc-en-ciel, Céret was sold by Josse Hessel to Dr. Jacques Soubiès, a collector who owned an array of works by a variety of great artists, not least among them Manet and Matisse. Following that it entered the famous Lambert Collection, accumulated with a discerning eye by the Belgian Baron Lambert, a member of the banking dynasty. While the Baroness favoured the works by European artists, her son Léon managed to build up a formidable collection of paintings by artists ranging from the Moderns and Surrealists to the Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists.
Soutine had stayed in Paris for years before he finally was sent to Céret by his friend and dealer, Zborowski. There, he found himself exposed to a whole new realm of visual stimuli and relished the chance to capture these scenes of life and nature in his oils. However, his long hours spent in the public galleries of Paris had by no means been forgotten-- there is a classical quality to L'arc-en-ciel, Céret that recalls the paintings of certain Old Masters. While L'arc-en-ciel, Céret is reminiscent of certain works by Ruisdael and Rubens, it also appears to bear some compositional similarities to Millet's painting Le printemps, in the Musée d'Orsay, leading the viewer to wonder if Soutine's visual memory had been triggered by the scene before him.
Having belonged to Raoul Pellequer during the 1920s, L'arc-en-ciel, Céret was sold by Josse Hessel to Dr. Jacques Soubiès, a collector who owned an array of works by a variety of great artists, not least among them Manet and Matisse. Following that it entered the famous Lambert Collection, accumulated with a discerning eye by the Belgian Baron Lambert, a member of the banking dynasty. While the Baroness favoured the works by European artists, her son Léon managed to build up a formidable collection of paintings by artists ranging from the Moderns and Surrealists to the Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists.