Still Life with Rayfish
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● On view now — 223 20th Century Avant-Garde
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · verified July 2026
Discussion
FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG
The mutilated ray fish in this painting is strung across the top of the canvas, as if tortured or crucified, as its internal organs spill forth. The fish seems to express human anguish, transforming it into a powerful metaphor for suffering. Below the fish is a kettle that seems to twist away from the fish. Chaïm Soutine frequently depicted animal carcasses in his paintings, highlighting their vulnerability and the violence of their deaths. Such paintings may allude to his own despair, from his youth as the 10th of 11 children of parents in poverty in a small Orthodox Jewish community in what is now Belarus, to his early years in Paris as a struggling artist.
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More by Chaïm Soutine
Landscape with House and Tree (Paysage avec maison et arbre)
Winding Road, Near Gréolières (La Route montante, vers Gréol
Bouquet of Flowers (Bouquet de fleurs)
Red Church (L'Église rouge)
Landscape with White Building (Paysage avec maison blanche)
Landscape with Houses (Paysage avec maisons)
Landscape of the South of France (Paysage du Midi)
Landscape with Figure (Paysage avec figure)
