Beschreibung:

La liseuse endormie, Madeleine Castaing
Executed c. 1937. Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by Marcellin and Madeleine Castaing Collection of Madeleine Castaing Impressionist and Modern Art Day, Sotheby’s London, 20 June 2006, lot 340. Important private collection, Europe. Exhibited: L’Or des années folles, 1918–1930, Grand Palais, Paris, 8 February–5 March 1979. Chaim Soutine, 1893–1943, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster; Kunsthalle, Tübingen; Hayward Gallery, London; Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, 1981–1982. Soutine, 1893–1943, Galleri Bellman, New York, 6 December 1983–28 January 1984. C. Soutine, XXXIe Salon de Montrouge. Art contemporain, peinture, sculpture, dessin, Centre Culturel et Artistique, Montrouge, 1986. Chaim Soutine, 1893–1943. I dipinti della collezione Castaing, Galleria Bergamini, Milan, March–April 1987. Soutine, Musée de Chartres, Chartres, 29 June–30 October 1989, No. 69. Chaim Soutine, Galerie Thomas, Munich, 1 April–30 May 2009. Literature: M. Ochse, “Retour de Soutine”, Jardin des Arts, Paris, No. 218, May–June 1973, p. 9, illustrated. Exhibition catalogue, J. Monneret (ed.), L’Or des années folles, 1918–1930, Paris, Société des artistes indépendants, 1979, p. 28, No. 19, illustrated. Exhibition catalogue, Chaim Soutine, 1893–1943, London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1982, No. 90, illustrated with incorrect orientation. Exhibition catalogue, Soutine, 1893–1943, New York, Galleri Bellman, 1983, No. 19, illustrated with incorrect orientation and size. Exhibition catalogue, C. Soutine, XXXIe Salon de Montrouge. Art contemporain, peinture, sculpture, dessin, Montrouge, Centre Culturel et Artistique, 1986, No. 27. Exhibition catalogue, F. Porzio, Chaim Soutine, 1893–1943. I dipinti della collezione Castaing, Milan, Galleria Bergamini, 1987, No. 15, illustrated and listed. Exhibition catalogue, Soutine, Chartres, 1989, p. 303, illustrated; p. 302, No. 69, listed with the date 1940. M. Tuchman, E. Dunow, K. Perls (eds), Chaim Soutine. Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, Benedikt Taschen 1993, p. 760, listed; p. 763, illustrated. Chaim Soutine. The Passion of Painting, Munich, Galerie Thomas, 2009, p. 134, illustrated and listed. M. German, Khaim Sutin. 1893–1943, Moscow, Iskusstvo–XXI vek, 2009, p. 309, illustrated and mentioned in the text; p. 357, listed. K. Carl, Chaim Soutine, London, Parkstone International, 2015, illustrated. Chaïm Soutine’s La liseuse endormie, Madeleine Castaing now offered for auction, the portrait of a close friend, the collector and the artist’s patron, Madame Madeleine Castaing (1894–1992), is one of the artist’s most expressive portraits. It was painted in the second half of the 1930s, when the relationship between Soutine and his model — who was to become a wellknown bohemian antique dealer, interior designer and was, according to Picasso, “the most alluring” woman in Paris — was already so friendly and enduring that it did not presuppose the traditional official distance between the artist and his patron. They first met in the 1920s, when a wealthy couple Madeleine and Marcellin Castaing — lovers of painting and passionate collectors, who had already a collection, which included works by Modigliani, Rouault, Picasso, Gris and Léger — saw some of Soutine’s works and began to track them down. The Castaings’ support, which remained with Soutine until his dying day, gradually brought them closer together, and after the death of Léopold Zborowski, the artist’s long-time dealer, Madeleine Castaing personally looked after Soutine’s affairs. From 1930 to 1935, the artist spent his summers at the Castaings’ home on their Lèves estate near Chartres. It was here that he painted his masterpieces Woman Entering the Water (1931; after Rembrandt’s Woman Bathing), Siesta (1934), Child in Blue and Chartres Cathedral (1934). Madeleine Castaing posed repeatedly for Soutine both in his workshop near the Parc Montsouris and on her estate. Soutine trusted her implicitly, and she alone