La Maison blanche

Chaïm Soutine
La Maison blanche
vers 1933
huile sur toile
H. 65 ; L. 50 cm avec cadre H. 78,5 ; L. 64,5 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée de l'Orangerie) / Hervé Lewandowski
Chaïm Soutine (1893 - 1943)
Artwork not currently exhibited in the museum

La Maison blanche [White House] is out of place amongst Soutine's other landscapes. The house rises up straight and solid almost in the middle of the landscape. Only the trees are twisting and convulsing. Although it slopes severely, the landscape seems much more Naturalist that the landscapes from Céret or Cagnes. Incidentally, the date of this painting is the object of discussion among art historians. In his catalogue raisonné of Soutine's works, Maurice Tuchman dates it to 1918, but Pierre Courthion estimates 1919, and art critic Waldemar George, who was close to Paul Guillaume, proposed 1933 as its date.
The paths that join up in the foreground and then stretch out to the left create an effect of perspective that, according to Colette Giraudon, speaks in favour of a 1933 dating.