The Idiot
Chaïm Soutine · 1920
Why it's great
A young man with a tilted head and a dazed face is dressed in blue, painted in thick, twisting strokes. Soutine painted many portraits of kitchen workers and ordinary people, and his pictures are full of emotion. The strange title reflects an old and unkind way of describing a person who seemed different. The painting asks us to look carefully at someone others might overlook.
Where to see it
📍 Calvet MuseumAvignon, France
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Three places to look for a print of this painting, from budget to museum-grade:
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Chaïm Soutine was born into a poor Jewish family in a small village in what is now Belarus. He moved to Paris in 1913, where he lived and painted in a crowded artists' colony and became close friends with Modigliani. His wild, twisting paintings of waiters, pastry cooks and landscapes made him famous. He died in Paris in 1943, during the German occupation.
