Chaim Soutine, Young English Girl

Soutine usually painted his portraits on an upright canvas, filling the frame with his sitter and leaving no empty space. This painting breaks from that habit, using a horizontal canvas and leaving generous space beside the figure.

The composition differs, but another Soutine signature carries through: color. He rendered the woman's dress in his favored red and white, and her hair, too, carries the reddish tone he was drawn to.

One intriguing detail is that this canvas had already been used for another painting before Soutine painted over it. He had little fondness for new canvases, for two reasons. In his poorer years he simply couldn't afford them, and the habit stuck even after his finances improved; beyond that, he came to prefer the distinctive texture that a previously used canvas offered.