Artwork
Still Life with Rayfish
Still Life with Rayfish is an oil painting by Chaïm Soutine. It dates from 1923 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
The palette is muted yet resonant, with olive greens and umber tones dominating the composition, while touches of red and white punctuate the form and surface.
Executed in oil on canvas in 1924, the painting measures 80.5 by 64.5 centimeters. The handling is characterized by thick, loaded brushwork and a tactile impasto that animates the fish and drapery. The palette is muted yet resonant, with olive greens and umber tones dominating the composition, while touches of red and white punctuate the form and surface.
The still-life arrangement, centered on a rayfish, its wings splayed and skin subtly textured, conveys a visceral immediacy through Soutine’s expressive distortion. The background is loosely rendered, allowing the subject’s sculptural presence to dominate and the paint’s materiality to become a subject in itself.
History & Provenance
Chaïm Soutine created the oil painting Still Life with Rayfish in 1923. Executed on canvas, the work measures 80.5 cm in height and 64.5 cm in width. The painting is currently held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland.
No specific details regarding a commission, original patron, or the precise chain of ownership prior to its arrival at the museum are provided in the available records.
Overview
Created in 1923, Still Life with Rayfish is an oil painting by Chaïm Soutine, a Belarusian‑Jewish artist linked to the School of Paris. The work belongs to the still‑life tradition and is held by the Cleveland Museum of Art. It exemplifies Soutine’s departure from literal representation, emphasizing the physicality of paint and the emotional resonance of ordinary objects.
Subject & Meaning
The composition presents a cluttered tabletop: a red earthenware pot, a cluster of bruised pears or apples, and an inverted fish with its mouth agape, rendered in a distorted, almost liquefied manner. The juxtaposition of the fleshy fruit and the gaping fish creates a tension between vitality and decay, inviting contemplation of the fleeting nature of material abundance.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Chaïm Soutine (French:; Russian: Хаим Соломонович Сутин, romanized: Khaim Solomonovich Sutin; Yiddish: חײם סוטין, romanized: Chaim Sutin; 13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin…
