Upon his arrival in Paris in 1913, Soutine worked alongside Modigliani and Chagall in a cluster of artists' studios called La Ruche, or "The Beehive." In this early still life, the open mouths of the herrings create the illusion that the fish are gasping for air, prefiguring the dramatic intensity of the artist's later work. At La Ruche, Soutine also experimented with expressionistic brushwork, as seen in the thick, forceful application of paint.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Still Life with Fish
Artist:Chaim Soutine (French (born Lithuania), Smilovitchi 1893–1943 Paris)
Date:ca. 1920
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:16 1/4 × 25 5/16 in. (41.3 × 64.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967
Object Number:67.187.105
Inscription: Signed (lower left): Soutine
[Henri Bing, Paris, until 1926; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 12, 1926, no. 104, as "Poissons à la lampe," sold for Fr 4,700 to Guillaume]; [Paul Guillaume, Paris, from 1926]; [Jos Hessel, Paris]; [Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1928; stock no. 25244; purchased on February 17 and sold on February 18, 1928]; Dr. Jacques Soubies, Paris (from 1928); Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York (by 1936–d. 1967; her bequest to MMA)
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Adelaide Milton de Groot Loan Collection," January 10–February 12, 1950, unnum. checklist (as "Poissons").
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Soutine," October 31, 1950–January 7, 1951, unnumbered cat. (p. 38; lent by Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York).
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Soutine," January 30–March 18, 1951, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Modern European Paintings from New York Private Collections," June 22–September 30, 1956, no catalogue.
Edinburgh. Royal Scottish Academy. "Chaim Soutine, 1893–1943," August 17–September 15, 1963, no. 5 (lent by Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York).
New York. Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. "Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art," November 18, 1976–January 2, 1977, unnumbered cat. (as "Fish").
Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. "Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso," May 15–September 1, 1981, no. 227 (as "Poisson").
Münster. Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. "Chaïm Soutine, 1893–1943," December 13, 1981–February 28, 1982, no. 4 (as "Stilleben mit Fischen [Fish]," 1918).
London. Hayward Gallery. "Chaïm Soutine, 1893–1943," July 14–August 22, 1982, no. 4 (as "Still Life with Fish [Fish]," 1918).
Kunstmuseum Luzern. "Chaïm Soutine, 1893–1943," August 31–October 31, 1982, no. 4 (as "Stilleben mit Fischen [Fish]," 1918).
Musée de Chartres. "Soutine," June 29–October 30, 1989, no. 12.
Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano. "Chaim Soutine," March 12–June 18, 1995, no. 23.
La Cote des Tableaux ou Annuaire des ventes de tableaux, dessins, aquarelles, pastels, gouaches, miniatures. Guide du Marchand, de l'Amateur. Vol. 8, Tous les prix des ventes de l'année (Octobre 1925–fin Juillet 1926). Paris, 1926, p. 169.
Monroe Wheeler. Soutine. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1950, pp. 46, 112, ill. p. 38, dates it about 1917, commenting that this picture foreshadows later works by Soutine.
Paolo D'Ancona. Modigliani, Chagall, Soutine, Pascin: Some Aspects of Expressionism. Milan, 1953, p. 59, dates it 1917.
David Sylvester inChaim Soutine, 1893–1943. Exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. [London], 1963, p. 6, notes the influence of van Gogh in this work.
Maurice Tuchman inChaim Soutine, 1893–1943. Exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. [London], 1963, p. 17, no. 6, dates it about 1918, based in part on the "heaviness and awkwardness of the linear forces" and "spatial planes which fail to relate plastically to the picture surface," but also notes similarities to pictures of the mid-1920s.
Andrew Forge. Soutine. London, 1965, p. 37, colorpl. 4, dates it about 1918.
Pierre Courthion. Soutine: Peintre du déchirant. Lausanne, 1972, ill. p. 186, fig. B, calls it "Nature morte à la lampe et aux harengs" and dates it 1918.
Alfred Werner. "Soutine: Trial and Triumph." South Atlantic Quarterly 73 (Spring 1974), p. 252.
Alfred Werner. Chaïm Soutine. New York, 1977, p. 76, colorpl. 6, dates it about 1918; remarks that Soutine's extreme poverty at the time of this work's execution informed his interpretation of the traditional still-life theme.
Malcolm Gee. Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930. PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art. New York, 1981, appendix G, p. 196, no. 22.
William S. Lieberman inProfil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso. Exh. cat., Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. Bordeaux, 1981, pp. 175–76, no. 227, ill., dates it about 1917.
Maïthé Vallès-Bled. Soutine. Exh. cat., Musée de Chartres. Chartres, 1989, pp. 126–27, no. 12, ill. (color), dates it 1918.
Maurice Tuchman, Esti Dunow, and Klaus Perls. Chaim Soutine (1893–1943): Catalogue raisonné. Werkverzeichnis. Cologne, 1993, vol. 1, p. 400, no. II-43, ill. (color).
Maïthé Vallès-Bled inChaim Soutine. Ed. Rudy Chiappini. Exh. cat., Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano. Milan, 1995, p. 157, no. 23, ill., dates it 1919; notes that Soutine often painted herrings in his early still-lifes because they were part of his cheap diet, but also invoked memories of the traditional food of his childhood; observes that "in the bodies of these tormented fish... Soutine affirms not his perception of the world but the manifestation of his most profound inner self, which turns each of his painting[s] into a genuine self-portrait".
Roberto Tassi inChaim Soutine. Ed. Rudy Chiappini. Exh. cat., Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano. Milan, 1995, p. 60, ill. p. 53 (color), dates it 1920.
Colette Giraudon in Norman L. Kleeblatt and Kenneth E. Silver. An Expressionist in Paris: The Paintings of Chaim Soutine. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum, New York. New York, 1998, p. 91.
Esti Dunow et al. Soutine: Céret 1919–1922. Exh. cat., Musée d'art moderne de Céret. Céret, 2000, ill. p. 485 (color), date it 1920.
Chaim Soutine (French (born Lithuania), Smilovitchi 1893–1943 Paris)
ca. 1924
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