Artwork
Apples
Apples is an oil painting by Chaïm Soutine. It dates from 1917 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Overview
Chaïm Soutine’s 1917 oil painting *Apples* presents a solitary fruit rendered with vigorous, tactile brushwork. The canvas captures a single apple set against a dark, indistinct background, emphasizing the object’s physicality over narrative detail. The work exemplifies Soutine’s departure from precise representation, favoring a more visceral, emotive approach.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on an apple that appears lumpy and irregular, its form distorted by the artist’s hand. By foregrounding the fruit’s texture and uneven shape, Soutine invites viewers to consider the ordinary object as a site of expressive potential, reflecting a broader interest in the emotional resonance of everyday items.
Technique & Style
Soutine employs a thick impasto technique, applying paint in heavy, uneven strokes that give the surface a sculptural quality. Dark, almost black tones dominate the background, while the apple’s surface is built up with rough, gestural marks. This approach aligns with his expressionist concerns, prioritizing color, shape, and tactile sensation over literal depiction.
History & Provenance
Created during the height of Soutine’s association with the School of Paris, *Apples* entered the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on view. The painting reflects the artist’s early 20th‑century engagement with European classical influences, reinterpreted through his distinctive, expressionist lens.
Artist & collection
Artist
Chaïm Soutine (French: ; Russian: Хаим Соломонович Сутин, romanized: Khaim Solomonovich Sutin; Yiddish: חײם סוטין, romanized: Chaim Sutin; 13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish…
