Woman Seated in Armchair (Femme accoudée au fauteuil)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

A formidable woman sits in a red armchair, resting her head in her hand. Her multicolored face is a mask of contemplation; fingers and arms bend and twist like the limbs of trees. In placing Soutine's portrait in this grouping, Albert Barnes surely wanted to highlight its relationship with Old Masters like Jacopo Tintoretto. Barnes also saw the influence of Honoré Daumier, hanging the great caricaturist's large painting, The Ribalds, on the adjacent wall. He wrote: "From Daumier…is derived [Soutine's] method of so simplifying and distorting objects that they sometimes appear monstrous or grotesque, but are nevertheless convincing in their essential reality."

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