Soutine's Reclining Tree

Chaïm Soutine's Reclining Tree returns to a subject he favored throughout his career. The belief, held in the village of his childhood, that trees were sacred appears to have stayed with him into adulthood. True to Expressionism, the painting is heavily distorted, giving the impression of a tree bent by a violent storm — though there was no actual storm. Rather, the distortion is a visual expression of the artist's own inner turmoil.