The Pastry Chef (Baker Boy) (Le Pâtissier)

c. 1919

Oil on canvas

66 × 51 cm (26 × 20.1 in)

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● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 16, West Wall

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

When Albert Barnes first visited Chaim Soutine's Paris studio in 1922, the struggling artist was known only in the city's bohemian circles. Seeing this painting of a pastry chef sparked Dr. Barnes to buy more than 50 works by Soutine in the course of a few weeks, through the art dealer Paul Guillaume. In 1923, Guillaume recounted his discovery of Soutine's work: "One day when I had gone to a painter's house to see a picture by Modigliani I noticed in a corner of the studio a work which immediately got me excited. It was a Soutine; and it showed a pastry chef—an incredible, captivating, tangible, colorful pastry chef, cursed with a huge, magnificent ear, unexpected but right; a masterpiece. I bought it."

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