Poland: Krakow's Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. How Should The Wall Paintings Be Presented?

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Interior being prepared for nightclub. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, May 2013.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Interior being prepared (again)  for nightclub or restaurant. Photo: Tomasz Cebulski 2016

Poland: Krakow's Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. How Should The Wall Paintings Be Presented? 

by Samuel D. Gruber

I've been working lately on the history, art, and preservation of the 1910 mural from the Chai Adam Synagogue in Burlington, Vermont. This has led me to look deeper at other fragments of late 19th and early 20th-century synagogue wall painting; mostly re-discovered in recent years.

When I was last in Krakow, Poland, in 2013, I saw for about 20 minutes the remarkable paintings in the former Hevra Tehilim (Psalm Brotherhood) prayer house at 18 Meiselsa Street (and 13 Bożego Ciała St) in the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz. This largely intact cycle of wall paintings, painted some time between 1896 and the early 1930s, was entirely unknown to scholars and the public just a few years earlier. The large ground floor prayer hall was inaccessible to the public, and when returned to the Jewish community was still undistinguished, since all the decoration remained hidden by later coats of paint.

Based on my brief visit and a series of photos taken of the mural in 2008 by Slawomir Pastuszka and shared on Wikimedia, I want to make these works better known, and to stimulate discussion about their history, iconography and future preservation. More photos by Vladimir Levin, taken at the same time as my visit, have been posted by the Center for Jewish Art. Please contribute any information on the background of the paintings, or your ideas about their long term protection and presentation.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Interior being prepared (again)  for nightclub or restaurant. Photo:Tomasz Cebulski 2016.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

At the time of my visit,  the space was being "renovated" for use as the "Mezkal" nightclub. Now, the nightclub has closed, and according to a report by Tomasz Cebulski earlier this year, new "renovations" are taking place for another tenant - perhaps a club or cafeteria.

In the 1990s, when I was investigating still extant former synagogues in Krakow, this building, while known, was not considered especially noteworthy.  Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka had taught us about the magnificence of lost wooden synagogues, but there was not yet an available typology for masonry synagogues. The Piechotka's own work on 19th-century synagogues was not yet published, nor had Eleonora Bergman yet taught us the importance - and former ubiquity - of the hundreds (or thousands) or seemingly unimpressive buildings and spaces that once housed prayer and study rooms - especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, we have only a small number of these spaces that recall in any way their former use. Of these, the former Hewra Thilim building is probably the best.

Krakow, Poland. Former Hevra Thilim prayer house (first floor), 18 Meiselsa Street (and 13 Bożego Ciała St). Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013.

The Hevra Thilim building was erected in 1896 under the supervision of Nachman Kopald, a well-known local Jewish architect. The building does not have the monumental appearance or exterior symbolic elements associated with many contemporary synagogues - especially Progressive the Tempel Synagogue located not far away, which was rebuilt in 1893. When built, 18 Meiselsa St. looked like a typical fin-de-siecle upscale apartment or office building, as it still does today.  Eli Valley included a brief mention of the building and the Psalms Society in his 1999 book The Great Jewish Cities of Central and Eastern Europe, but his comments are restricted to the congregation, not their space: membership in the Psalms Society "was no piece of cake; every day, each of the members would read the entire Book of Psalms, from cover to cover. They also paid a magid, or preacher, who would lecture them in this building every day after the evening prayer." (p 364)

In the post-war years the building housed the seat of the “Krakowiacy” Singing and Dancing Group (Zespół Pieśni i Tańca “Krakowiacy"), and only in 2001, under the 1997 law on restitution of Jewish property, was the synagogue returned to the Jewish Community of Kraków. At the time, the Community allowed the music group to remain, provided that it undertook repairs of the building. The group carried out renovation of the interior in stages with funds from the the city of Kraków. According to a report about the building by Miłosz Gudra on Virtual Sztetl, "The management board stated that it could not afford new windows and a thorough renovation of the roof; the city, on the other hand, refused to allocate money in this case because it was not the owner of the synagogue. The group ceased to occupy the building in 2006."

Then, in 2008, the brightly colored synagogue wall paintings were discovered. The images include vivid depictions a lion, a tiger, eagle (fragment) and a deer in ornamental frames on the west wall, at the women’s gallery level. These illustrate the favorite passage from the Mishnah, "Be as strong as a leopard, as light as an eagle, as swift as a deer, as brave as a lion to do the will of your Father in heaven" (Pirke Avot 5:23). In these paintings, which seem to be copied from a nature calendar, the leopard has become a tiger and the swift deer is a stately buck.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008 

A recess for the Aron ha-Kodesh with surrounding fragments of a painted red curtain has been preserved on the east wall. The decorative program also preserved a Hebrew memorial inscription reading “A candle of soul,” and expansive floral motif decorations. Just below the ceiling is a floral frieze. The windows are surrounded with painted red flowers, and there is a vertical floral frieze set between pairs of windows.  A fragment of a view of Jerusalem is preserved near a platform in the rear - that may have been reserved for women, though it is hard to tell if this is original. On both the north and south walls are two series of empty square niches.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Painted curtains around Ark niche. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Interior east and south walls. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, May 2013.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Interior wall painting. . Hebrew: נר נשמה , ner neshama, meaning "soul candle". Photo: Tomasz Cebulski 2016.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

On the north wall, set within painted ornamental floral frames, are four pictures of holy sites - real or imagined. Other than an extremely damaged picture of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount  (Hebrew: "Kotel,") these differ from more common scenes. There is a view of the Tower of David ("Migdal David"), and another of ruins that is labeled (fragmentary inscription) "Tombs of the Kings of the House of David". Lastly, there is a view of a pavilion-like domed building flanked by cypress trees.  I can't decipher the fragmentary inscription. Is this also a tomb?  Or is it meant to be the rebuilt Temple - modeled loosely, as was often the case, on the Dome of the Rock?  If the Temple, it suggests a messianic theme, stretching from the ruined Temple, through the House of David, to Messianic times.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Image of the מגדל דוד Migdal David (Tower of David). Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Tombs of the Kings of the House of David. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Tomb or Temple? Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. In 2013, the inscriptions had bee covered over by protective (?) panels. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2013.

Krakow, Poland. Beit Midrash Hevra Tehilim. Fragment of view of Jerusalem. Photo: Sławomir Pastuszka 2008.

As Tomasz Cebulski notes in his post, there is no reason the space of this former prayer house should not be used, and even used to bring income to the Jewish Community.  But given its history and extant art, the adaptive reuse should be "with respect, care and adding new meaning and understanding to this important historical space." There should a better long term solution. While this may never be a synagogue again since the Community has already invested in the restoration or refurbishment of several other historic prayer spaces, it could and should serve some other purpose that would allow the murals to be viewed unobstructed on a regular schedule, and the space used in a low-impact, dignified manner. The room is ideal for performance, lectures, meetings, exhibits and related activities.

Lithuania: Observations on the Vilna Gaon Statue and other Monuments

 Vilnius, Lithunia. Statue of Vilna Goan on site of his house. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

 

Vilnius, Lithunia. Statue of Vilna Goan on site of his house. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Lithuania: Observations on the Vilna Gaon Statue and other Monuments

by Samuel D. Gruber

The center of the Vilnius Jewish tourist route is the site of house of the Vilna Gaon (Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman), the great Talmud scholar and the leader of Lithuania's misnagdim in the 18th century who is still revered by observant Jews for his learning, judgement and piety. For all others, The Gaon has become of symbol for a world of Lithuanian (Litvak) Jewry that is no more.  In truth, already before the Holocaust Vilna's Jews had fractured into many religious, cultural, and political factions, so the Gaon's memory was not celebrated by all. But after the destruction of the Holocaust, when all faction became one: the murdered Jews of Vilna and the Gaon's memory, his name and image, took on sainted, or at least surrogate, status.

In 1997 on the 200th anniversary of the Gaon's death the city of Vilnius and the government of Lithuania helped sponsor a number of commemorative initiatives. For some, there was altruism; for others opportunism, a chance to improve among some Jews and Jewish organizations Lithuania's less than stellar record of Holocaust recognition and education. 

Commemoration of the Gaon was nothing new. On the 100th anniversary of his death there were remembrances and circulation of commemorative portraits for veneration.

Commemorative Portrait of the Vilna Gaon. Lithograph, 1897. Photo courtesy of the William A. Rosenthall Collection, Addlestone Library, College of Charleston.

Central to these events was the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the wall of house next to the one - now demolished - where the Gaon lived. According to Irina Guzenberg, in her Vilnius: Sites of Jewish Memory, A Concise Guide (2013), the plaque was unveiled on September 12, 1997. On the site of the house itself bronze bust of the Gaon on a tall pedestal was installed.

 

Vilnius, Lithunia. Statue of Vilna Goan on site of his house. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Jewish visitors who flock to this site and to the monument are often perplexed by the work. First, given his devotion to Halacha (Jewish law) and tradition, it is doubtful that the Gaon would have approved of any sculpted portrait, let alone his own.  And then, even if one accepts that the bust is OK - why is the Gaon shown without a head-covering? Surely he never appeared in public this way. In printed portraits of the Gaon he is shown with kippah and even tefillin.

 Cordoba, Spain. Maimonides statue, Tiberiadus Square & Prague, Czech Republic, Rabbi Loew Statue.

Of course, Vilnius is not the first city to erect a statue to a Jewish sage for civic reasons. There is a statue of Rabbi Löw (Maharal) by the Art Nouveau  Ladislav Šaloun on the New City Hall of Prague erected ca. 1910 (photo here) and one of Maimonides in Cordoba installed in 1964. These are all productions of local authorities trying to the right thing. In Prague, the Maharal was a central figure in local history and a character in local lore, hence his inclusion on the City Hall which is located not far from the Prague Jewish Quarter. In the case of Spain, there was no doubt a element of civic pride, but also possibly an accommodation of hoped-for Jewish tourism, too (this seems a little odd, since this was installed in Franco's Spain - so anyone with information on the origins of this statue please let me know).

The Vilnius depiction of the Gaon, by sculptor Mindaugas Snipas, is not in fact a representation of the Gaon at all, but a stylized work based on an earlier, now lost, plaster bust called The Jewish Sage by Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis (1934-1974). The work also recalls the large bronze heads of Moses sculpted by  was a Lithuanian-born American sculptor William Zorach (1887-1966) in the 1950s. Zorach was born in Jubarkis and emigrated to the United States with his family in 1894.

Moses.  William Zorach, sculptor. Smithsonian Museum.

 Moses. William Zorach, sculptor. located at Cong. Mishkan Israel, Hamden, CT. Photo: Samuel Gruber, 2011

I'm not really bothered by the Vilna Gaon bust and I'd be much less bothered if this single statue didn't loom so large in the Jewish heritage cityscape of Vilnius. For several years after the unveiling of this statue it seemed that local officials felt this was enough recognition of the Jewish past. The city was developing rapidly, the old Jewish neighborhood represented desirable real estate, and the municipality especially had other things on its mind.  Only slowly, and now in the last few years a little more quickly, has the pace of recognizing other spaces and places important to Vilnius's Jewish history and other Jewish individuals central to its history, picked up. 

Since 2007 a number of commemorative plaques have been installed on buildings throughout the city remembering a number of important Jewish individuals including politicians, writers and artists.  Most of these are plaques and have been installed in cooperation between the Jewish Community of Vilnius and the local government. Most are illustrated and described in Guzenberg's guidebook.

Vilnius, Lithunia. Statue of Vilna Goan on site of his house. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Vilnius, Lithuania. Plaque commemorating the Vila Gaon on the bulding next to he site of his house. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015 

While it recognizes Jewish history, it should be remembered that the Vilna Gaon bust is just one of many patriotic and nationalist sculptures that adorn modern Vilnius, some even dating to the Soviet era, such as the large bronze seated figure of Lithuanian novelist Žemaitė (1845-1921), whose real name was Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė. Since Lithuanian independence there has been an ongoing effort to install more sculpture to celebrate Lithuanian national themes, including language and art. So, in this context, including the Vilna Gaon in a sculptural cityscape of Lithuanian nationalism is a notable step. Any such "integration" has not been the case at Vilnius's so-called Museum of Genocide Victims, where before 2011 there was no mention of genocide of Jews.  In the unique language of the Vilnius museum, the term Genocide is used only to refer to the Soviet repression of ethnic Lithuanians, not the German and Lithuanian fascist killing of the city's Jews. A new book expected out this week in Lithuania, may address this still "hidden history."

Lithuanian novelist Žemaitė (1845-1921) (Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė).
Bronze sculpture designed by Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis, and sculpted by Petras Aleksandravičius (1970)

In Vilnius there is one other free standing bronze sculpture with a Jewish theme; this a 2007 statue commemorating 19th-century Jewish doctor and community leader Tzemahk Szabad (1864-1935). This was sponsored by the Litvak Foundation and is situated in the Old Town at Mesiniu and Dysnos Streets, near where Szabad was born, and carries the inscription: "In Memory of Doctor Tzemakh Shabad and Vilnius Jewish Community."

Shabad was an important man in his time. He was a leading physician, scientist, leader of the Jewish community and active in Vilna and Polish politics. Born in Vilna but educated in Moscow, he was a force for progressive medical and social action and in many ways his active secular life was an alternative to that represented by the Vilna Gaon. The real popularity of this statue in Vilnius, however, apparently has nothing to so with Szabad's Jewish credentials, but is because he was the inspiration of a Dr. Doolittle type character in a well-known children's book.

Szabad was, in fact, previously commemorated in the public monument in with a portrait bust at the TOZ (agricultural) colony of Pospieshki. The monument is illustrated in Letzer Ran's Jerusalem of Lithuania.  I don't know where this colony was/is, and it is doubtful the monument survives.

Vilnius, Lithuania. Statue of Doctor Tzemakh Shabad, 2007.

Pospieshki, Russia (?). Doctor Tzemakh Shabad monument at TOZ Colony, after 1935. Photo: Letzer Ran, Jerusalem of Lithuania, vol 1, p. 137.

Since the 1990s there have been many statues erected in Eastern European secular Jewish heroes - Shalom Aleichem, Franz Kafka and others. I'll address these in another post.

 

Belarus: Jewish Traces in Chaim Soutine's Home Town of Smilovichi

Smilovichi, Belarus. Former synagogue. Photo: Jewish Heritage Research Group (2004)

Belarus: Jewish Traces in Chaim Soutine's Home Town of Smilovichi 
by Samuel D. Gruber   

Last week I posted about the School of Paris painter Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) on the occasion of his birthday. I've been asked if there are any Jewish traces still in the Belarus village of Smilovichi (Smilavichy) which Soutine left behind forever when he headed for Paris in 1913. 

I've never been to Belarus, but a quick internet search (see below for how to do this) shows that there are Jewish traces still identifiable in the town - or at least there up through 2009. 

First we find a former synagogue (see above), probably built in the later 19th century, that is now (or was recently) a sewing factory. There are also old wooden houses which were part of the Jewish shtetl, and as in many towns in the region, these remain in use. The house of Soutine's father Zalman Soutine, was apparently located on Minskaya Street (now Republican Street). There is a Jewish cemetery, and a monument marking a mass grave from the Holocaust.

Smilovichi, Belarus. Former houses occupied and/or owned by Jews. Photo: Jewish Heritage Research Group (2007).

Smilovichi, Belarus. Former houses occupied and/or owned by Jews. Photo: Jewish Heritage Research Group (2007).

Smilovichi, Belarus. Former houses occupied and/or owned by Jews. Photo: Jewish Heritage Research Group (2007).

Smilovichi has recently reclaimed Soutine and there is now a permanent exhibition installed  at the Art Center for Emerging Artists about his life and art, titled “Spaces of Chaim Soutine.”  The exhibition is comprised of two spaces. The first is about his family origins asnd his early life and studies. The second is set up as a Parisian cafe decorated with reproductions of paintings by Soutine and other School of Paris  artist.  You can read about it here. 

In 2014, there was also talk of building a monument to Soutine in Smilovichi. I don't know whether this has been done.

There were no works by Soutine in Belarus until 2012, when the Belgazprombank bought his Les Grands Pres a Chartres for $400,000.
The Jewish cemetery, can be seen below in photos also from the JHRG.  Additional pictures of the Jewish Cemetery can now be seen in the genealogy section on the web site of Barry Hantmann at http://www.hantman.net/geneology/smilovichi/smilovichi.htm

Mr. Hantmann also includes a picture of a monument that stands next to a mass grave of Jews killed by Nazis. The mass grave is not near the cemetery. 

Smilovichi, Belarus. Jewish cemetery. Photo: Jewish Heritage Research Group (2007).

 

Smilovichi, Belarus. Jewish cemetery. Photo: Jewish Heritage Research Group (2007).

The best way to search for Jewish sites like this is to stop first at jewish-heritage-europe.eu, which will then lead you to other pages listing known Jewish heritage sites in all countries of Europe. So for Belarus, go here, and then there are links for the online lists and photos compiled by Jewish Heritage Research Group which was created in 2002 by several Jewish organizations in Belarus. Comprised of a local team of historians, genealogists, guides and others actively engaged and interested in Belarus Jewish heritage activities the group carried out documentation of Jewish heritage sites around the country and produced a map. It has also restored Jewish cemeteries in Mir, Rakov, Druja, and Gorki and it is engaged on synagogue restorations projects.

The JHRG has a comprehensive web site with links and resources, including a BLOG and clickable lists of heritage sites. It also forms part of the general Jewish Belarus web site.

Les Grands Pres a Chartres
Read full text at: http://eng.belta.by/culture/view/monument-to-chaim-soutine-to-be-built-in-smilovichi-4438-2014
If you use BelTA’s materials, you must credit us with a hyperlink to eng.belta.by.

Until recently there were no paintings by Chaim Soutine in Belarus. In 2012 Belgazprombank bought his work Les Grands Pres a Chartres at the Christie's auction for $400,000.
Read full text at: http://eng.belta.by/culture/view/monument-to-chaim-soutine-to-be-built-in-smilovichi-4438-2014
If you use BelTA’s materials, you must credit us with a hyperlink to eng.belta.by.

Until recently there were no paintings by Chaim Soutine in Belarus. In 2012 Belgazprombank bought his work Les Grands Pres a Chartres at the Christie's auction for $400,000.
Read full text at: http://eng.belta.by/culture/view/monument-to-chaim-soutine-to-be-built-in-smilovichi-4438-2014
If you use BelTA’s materials, you must credit us with a hyperlink to eng.belta.by.

Until recently there were no paintings by Chaim Soutine in Belarus. In 2012 Belgazprombank bought his work Les Grands Pres a Chartres at the Christie's auction for $400,000.
Read full text at: http://eng.belta.by/culture/view/monument-to-chaim-soutine-to-be-built-in-smilovichi-4438-2014
If you use BelTA’s materials, you must credit us with a hyperlink to eng.belta.by.

To my knowledge, there has not been the detailed documentation of Jewish buildings in Belarus, with measured drawings, extensive photographic documentation, and building document searches, as has been the case in neighboring Lithuania, but this would certainly be a worthy multi-institutional project. Since most of the surviving formerly Jeiwsh owned or occupied buildings will never return to Jewish use, it would be valuable at least to record them for posterity before they are further changed or demolished altogether.

Happy Birthday Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)!

Chaim Soutine. Beef and head of veal, 1923. Photo: Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Chaim Soutine, "The Houses" (Les Maisons), oil on canvas, 1921. Photo:  Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Happy Birthday Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)!
by Samuel D. Gruber  

It was only recently that I learned that I shared a birthday (January 13) with Chaim Soutine, one of my favorite painters. (Actually, though it is accepted that Soutine was born in 1893, the actual date is uncertain, but January 13th is frequently cited).

Soutine's colorful, messy, exuberant, thickly-laid, sometimes tortured, and wildly convulsed canvases are among the most purely painterly art works of the 20th century. Where Picasso was cool, Soutine was hot. Where Modigliani (Soutine's best friend) was dispassionate, Soutine was emotional. Where Chagall used narrative and symbols, Soutine's works tended toward the iconic: a face, a side of beef, a row of tilting houses.  His energetic, sometimes manic brushwork jumps from the canvas, often entirely independent of the subject, and for this he is often considered the forerunner of Abstract Expressionism. Certainly Soutine always used subject - even if he did not need it.  Though he looked back Rembrandt, there could not be De Kooning or Krassner if there had not been Soutine, and not Francis Bacon, either.

 

Chaim Soutine. Portrait of Oscar Miestchaninoff. Oil on canvas, 1924

Soutine is always claimed as a Jewish artist, but as with his Parisian predecessor Camille Pissaro, there is not much point looking for anything specifically Jewish in his work - other than the fact that he was an outsider, like many artists in Paris in the 1920s and 30s. Stanley Meisler, in his recent book Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall and the outsiders of Montparnasse (Palgrave, 2015) makes it clear Soutine didn't like to look back to his impoverished roots in a large religious shtetl family in the Pale of Settlement. He was born in Smiliovichi, a small town of about three thousand near Minsk in Belarus. Soutine is sometimes called Lithuanian, since that part of Belarus was once part of greater Lithuania. Culturally, when he escaped the oppressive parochialism of his home, it was to Minsk (Belarus) and Vilna (Lithuania) until he finally found some unstable stability in Paris and the south of France for many years.

"When you live in a dirty hole like Smilovichi, you cannot imagine that cities like Paris exist," Soutine is reported to have told a friend (Meisler, p. 9). Unlike Chagall, for whom his early life amid Jewish rituals, customs and language provided an endless source of nostalgia and interpretation, Soutine took his inspiration from artists of the past, what he saw with his own eyes, and his emotional state. Still, most of Soutine closest friends were other Jewish artists, especially in his early years in Paris.  Soutine didn't speak or write about his art, and much of what we know of his life is anecdotal and told years after the events. So unlike interpretation of the work of many of his contemporaries, almost all analysis of Soutine's oeuvre must, the end, be personal, subjective and mostly ahistoric.  
 

Chaim Soutine. Portrait of Paulette Jourdain, ca. 1928. Photo: Modigliani Soutine et leurs amis

 Chaim Soutine. Le groom, 1928. Photo: Modigliani Soutine et leurs amis

One really needs to see Soutines's work up close in person to catch their energy, power and sometimes joy  In America, that means going to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. But on New Year's 2013 in Paris I had the joy of seeing Chaim Soutine: Order out of Chaos (L'Ordre du Chaos) at the Orangerie Museum at the Tuileries which combined its own paintings - mostly from the collection of Soutine's art dealer Paul Guillaume (many of which you can see here) along with many loans from American museums other than the Barnes. Since the Barnes is especially strong on Soutine's early career, this exhibit has a marvelous selection of his paintings from after 1922, including those of animal carcasses and many works from his stay in the south of France in Ceret in the Pyrenees. His landscapes from this period are wild and twisted and have been called "apocalyptic." To me they more recall of frenetic energy of Van Gogh's late work, but they also recall the near contemporary work of the German Jewish painter Ludwig Meidner, though I don't think the two artists knew each others' work. It is mostly the tenor of the times and Soutine surely knew other German expressionist work.

Soutine died in 1943. He escaped Nazi round-ups and lived on the run in France until his he died at age 50 after an emergency operation.

Any time is a good time to reacquaint oneself with the art of Chaim Soutine. So, Happy Birthday!

Chaim Soutine. The little Pastry Cook, ca. 1922-1923. Photo: Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Chaim Soutine. Landscape, ca. 1922-1923. Photo: Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris