Your comments about Soutine and religion seem on the mark in the paintings you’ve posted. Comparing those still lifes with the images that Steve linked to makes me think that your comment: “Soutine had blinders on when painting– he was just so focused on what was in front of him and tuned out everything else around him.”

The forked rabbits (so to speak) pull that focus inward to some kind of metaphysical feeling or meaning, so that the outward “reeling” trees that one painting shows becomes the inward reeling sense of religious horror — or honor — of the other. I can’t help but sense the intensity of the painter — like Van Gogh or a slightly deranged Cezanne — but the meaning of the intensity resides within the artist and is only somewhat able to be understood by the viewer.

Thanks for this view of Soutine. It’s been a long time since I looked at or thought much about his painting. I am interested, as perhaps are Birgit and Steve, in the intensity of the experience of the artist which becomes manifest but not necessarily explained, in the work. I think Birgit’s Lake Views in “Sand Painting” are a partial result of her continued experiences of that view. I am eagerly awaiting the results of that clearly intense experience.

One gets the impression that Soutine had blinders on when painting– he was just so focused on what was in front of him and tuned out everything else around him.

In the self-portrait, is the second figure just the back side of a re-used canvas?

I will be able to see the gladiolas in the Brooklyn museum on a trip to NYC. Seeing the landscapes at the Tate will be more of a challenge.

I do like Soutine’s trees a lot. Associating the way that they are painted with ancient tree worshiping of the pagan religion is interesting. Naively, from my remote position in time, I prefer pagan tree worshipping to Roman Catholic symbolism.

It is touching that the theme of his last paintings were two children walking towards us on a road, holding hands.

Soutine must have been an interesting person – paganism, Christian symbolism/Jewish dietary laws and finally trust and hope.

I agree with you about Titian’s painting, Birgit. I remember Medieval/Romanesque art history classes where I sat with a queasy stomach studying slides of flayings and other horrible tortures.
As often happens, the copy of Flayed Rabbit posted here doesn’t do the painting justice. The original is really something to see.
Have you seen the gladiolas he painted? You would enjoy the intense reds.

Thanks for showing up my too hasty research. Somehow I got on a site with over 100 Soutines, almost entirely animals or flowers. It looks like he did indeed paint in other genres throughout his career. Les maisons rouges looks quite placid compared to the reeling distortion of Cagnes landscape with tree or The road up the hill. The two children in Deux enfants sur la route seem not to notice the landscape buckling up behind them. Reminds me of van Gogh and Munch.

Thank you for bringing Chaim Soutine to my attention. I love his magnificent use of color as, for example, the reds/yellows in Les maisons rouges. c. 1917 or the yellow/green/blue in Deux enfants sur la route. c. 1939 and the occasional wondrous blues.

In terms of shock value, I cannot bear looking at Titian’s painting. Considering skin a beautiful organ and having dedicated much of my life to learn about its sensory innervation, flaying of live humans strikes me as an abominable torture. In contrast, skinning of dead animals, I take as a normal procedure having visited slaughter yards as a child. Not being much into religious symbolism, I am more excited over the striking juxtaposition of red and yellow hues in the flayed rabbit than over the subject matter.

It is not surprising that his skinned animals commanded much attention because of the novelty of the subject. It excites a sense for the macabre as evidenced by Roald Dahl short story skin.