Editing Chaïm Soutine (section)

=== La Ruche and Montparnasse ===
{{See also|School of Paris}}

For a time, he and his friends lived at [[La Ruche (residence)|La Ruche]], a residence for struggling artists in [[Montparnasse]] in Paris.  Since 1900, the Montparnasse district, popularized by Apollinaire, had supplanted [[Montmartre]] as the epicenter of an intellectual and artistic life in Paris. It was the meeting place of writers, painters, sculptors, and actors, often struggling financially, who exchanged and created art and literature whilst sitting and chatting in cafes.<ref>Parmi ceux que fréquentaient le plus les artistes du temps subsistent toujours ''[[La Closerie des Lilas]], [[Le Dôme (brasserie)|Le Dôme]], [[La Rotonde (brasserie)|La Rotonde]]''. (FR)</ref>

La Ruche — whose rotunda stands on Dantzig Passage in the [[15th arrondissement of Paris|15th arrondissement]], not far from Montparnasse, a cosmopolitan commune where painters and sculptors from all over, many from Eastern Europe — rented small studios at a low cost. There, Soutine encountered, among others, [[Alexander Archipenko|Archipenko]], [[Ossip Zadkine|Zadkine]], [[Constantin Brâncuși|Brancusi]], [[Jacques Chapiro|Chapiro]], [[Moïse Kisling|Kisling]], [[Elisabeth Epstein|Epstein]], [[Marc Chagall|Chagall]], [[Nina Niss-Goldman]], [[Chana Orloff]], as well as Lipchitz who introduced [[Amedeo Modigliani|Amadeo Modigliani]] to Soutine.<ref>{{harvsp|Tuchman|Dunow|Perls|2001|p=78}}.</ref>

The two became friends. Modigliani painted Soutine's portrait several times, most famously in 1917, on a door of an apartment belonging to [[Léopold Zborowski]], who was their art dealer.<ref>Kleeblatt et al., 101</ref> Until he acquired his own studio, he slept and worked at various places, specifically at Krémègne and Kikoïne's, fellow Jewish painters of the [[School of Paris|School of Pairs]]. His poverty was such he even slept in stairways and on benches.<ref name="CP1">{{harvsp|Parisot|2005|p=204}}.</ref>

Upon his arrival in Paris, Soutine eagerly immersed himself in his exploration of the French capital. "In a filthy hole like Smilovitchi," he claimed, where, he also said, they are unaware of the existence of a piano, "one cannot imagine that there are cities like Paris, or music like that of Bach." As soon as he has a few pennies in his pocket, he would spend them in order to "immerse himself" in music at Colonne or Lamoureux concerts, with a preference for Baroque music.<ref>{{harvsp|Nicoïdski|1993|p=55}}.</ref> He haunted the galleries of the [[Louvre]], either hugging the walls or jumping at the slightest approach, and contemplated for hours his favorite painters: "If he loves [[Jean Fouquet|Fouquet]], [[Raphael]], [[Jean Siméon Chardin|Chardin]], and [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Ingres]], it is especially in the works of [[Francisco Goya|Goya]] and [[Gustave Courbet|Courbet]], and more than any other, in those of [[Rembrandt]], that Soutine recognizes himself." Chana Orloff recounted that, seized by a "respectful fear" in front of a Rembrandt, he could also go into ecstasy and exclaim, "It's so beautiful that it drives me mad!".<ref name="aa">{{harvsp|Breton|2007|p=34}}.</ref>

Soutine took French lessons, often in the back of [[Café de la Rotonde|La Rotonde]], managed at the time by Victor Libion. Libion, who acted as a sort of artists' patron, allowed artists to warm up from the cold in La Rotonde and discuss for hours without requiring them to make additional purchases. After learning French, Soutine — an avid reader of Russian novels — also began to enthusiastically read and immerse himself in French literature, reading [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]], [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]], and [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]], and later, [[Michel de Montaigne|Montaigne]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-01-04 |title=Chaim SOUTINE |url=https://ecoledeparis.org/chaim-soutine/ |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=Bureau d’art Ecole de Paris |language=en-US}}</ref>

Zborowski supported Soutine through World War I, taking the struggling artist with him to [[Nice]] to escape the possible [[German invasion of France|German invasion of Paris]].