Soutine's The Table

Chaïm Soutine's The Table shows his style at its most characteristic. Every object on the table — the wine bottle, the pitcher — is rendered with a warped, twisting form, and the red he favored above all other colors is used to paint the meat. The green background is no accident either: paired against the red, the complementary contrast makes the meat pop all the more.

Look closely and you'll notice fine, yellowish cracks running through the paint surface. These formed over time from Soutine's working method of applying paint quickly in layers and sometimes scraping it away with a knife.