Le Lapin écorché (c.1921)

Soutine, Chaïm (1893-1943)

Le Lapin écorché (The Flayed Rabbit)
c.1921
Oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm
Barnes FoundationPhiladelphia

A flayed rabbit lies splayed on a white cloth, its clouded eye just visible. Soutine has given us a bird’s-eye view of its innards and musculoskeletal system and—perhaps most affectingly—of its furry hind feet, still intact, that preserve the memory of the living, hopping animal. Here, Soutine transformed his studies of Old Master still lives (particularly by Rembrandt, albeit enhanced with new material from local butchers) into a suffocating, visionary realism. (BF)