Soutine's The Fiancée

The title of Chaïm Soutine's The Fiancée naturally raises the question of whether the woman in it was really Soutine's own fiancée, but this has never been confirmed, and her identity remains unknown altogether.

Given the title, one might expect a flattering portrait, but as an Expressionist painter, Soutine rendered this work in his own uncompromising style, just as he did with everything else. The woman's face is marked by a heavy sorrow, and her body is bent and warped throughout the canvas. This reads less as a portrait of a melancholy woman and more as an outward expression of the painter's own inner feelings.