Old Woman
In the nearly 200 portraits Chaïm Soutine painted, he was remarkably consistent in his approach:he almost always painted solitary, unidentified models, seated in half- or three-quarter-length poses facing frontally with hands placed on the hips or folded in the lap, as seen here. The physical distortions—the woman’s large hands, arched green eyebrows, and pointed chin—executed with agitated, slashing brushstrokes heighten the portrait’s expressive qualities. The sitter here is remarkably similar to the figure in another Soutine portrait of a schoolteacher named Melanie at the Columbus Museum of Art.
Colors in this work
Details
- Date
- c. 1923–24
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- framed: height 0.889 m, width 0.787 m, depth 0.086 m; unframed: height 0.65 m, width 0.54 m
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Palette
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- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Gift of the Mildred Andrews Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The title and catalog description identify a solitary seated model in a frontal portrait format; one sitter visibly dominates the composition.
Styles and Movements
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Expressionism Interpretive · 78%
The distorted anatomy, heightened facial features, and forceful brushwork support an association with Expressionist visual strategies, although the supplied catalog does not assign a formal style.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Visual · 95%
The composition is dominated by deep greens, browns, ochers, and muted rust-reds, with an overall dark tonal range.
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Earth Tones Visual · 94%
Warm ocher, umber, brown, and subdued reddish hues structure the background, flesh tones, and clothing.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Both · 99%
The Cleveland Museum of Art classifies the work as a painting, and the image visibly presents a painted composition.
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Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies the medium as oil on canvas.
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Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Both · 97%
The catalog specifically describes agitated, slashing brushstrokes, which are also clearly visible across the face, clothing, hands, and background.
Time Periods
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1918 - 1939 (Interwar) Art Metadata · 99%
The work is dated circa 1923–24, placing it within the interwar period.
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Modern Metadata · 90%
The catalog places the work in the modern period and identifies Soutine as Russian; its place-of-origin field reads “Russia (worked in France), 20th century.”
Geographic Regions
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Russian Art Metadata · 84%
The catalog gives the place of origin as Russia while noting that Soutine worked in France.
Source & rights
Chaïm Soutine (Russian, 1893–1943). Old Woman. Cleveland Museum of Art.
High-resolution sources
- Original TIFF ↗ 4,720 × 5,687 · Cleveland Museum Of Art · Available