Portrait of Chaim Soutine 1915

This is Amedeo Modigliani’s 'Portrait of Chaim Soutine,' painted sometime in the early 20th century. Look at the way he builds up the face with these broad, almost brutal strokes of ochre and pink. It's less about capturing likeness and more about the act of painting itself. The paint has this fleshy, almost sculptural quality; you can practically feel Modigliani wrestling with the medium. The way the colours bleed into each other, especially around Soutine’s cheeks, gives him this feverish intensity. It's like Modigliani is trying to capture something deeper, something beyond the surface, about his friend. These two artists were good friends, and they were often drawing and painting each other. You can almost feel the energy of their relationship in this piece. You get the sense of two painters spurring each other on. For me, this piece is an ongoing conversation about how we see and feel.