French Jewish artist Chaim Soutine rediscovered in suitcase trove of letters

• Author: SARA MANOBLA
• Published date: 13 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Serouya came from a family of learned rabbis originating in Portugal. His parents came to Palestine from Aleppo in the late 19th century, and Henri, the youngest of their four children, was born in 1895 in Jerusalem. Here he was educated at the Alliance school where his outstanding talents were recognized and nurtured. In 1911, part of the family moved to Cairo, later to Cuba and then to New York. With support and grants from the Alliance center, Henri was sent to Paris in 1913 to continue his studies at the Sorbonne. He lived the rest of his life in France and became a French citizen in 1931. He left behind in Israel his sister and other relatives, with whom he remained in contact over the years. And that is how I got to know him, through my father-in-law, Joseph Manobla, Serouya's nephew and closest friend.

Read More...

My husband and I met Uncle Henri when he came to Jerusalem for our wedding, his second visit to Israel since leaving the country. He had come in 1949 as a guest of the Israel government. In 1961 he stayed with us for some weeks. When he returned to Paris, I corresponded with him on behalf of the family, and the battered old brown suitcase contains my letters to him and letters from his nephew Joseph and other family members. On our honeymoon trip to Europe we visited him, and I photographed him at his desk, surrounded by books and manuscripts, in the modest Boulevard Raspail studio apartment where he lived until his death in 1968. Across the road are the famed coffee houses and restaurants of Montparnasse, still there, Le Dôme and La Coupole, unchanged to this day. In the 1920s and 1930s these were the gathering places for writers, intellectuals, Bohemians, and the famed artists of l'École de Paris school of painting.

Many of these artists were Yiddish-speaking Jews from eastern Europe, who rejected the shtetl and the narrow world of orthodox Jewry. Fleeing the tyranny and antisemitism of Tsarist Russia, they were drawn by the artistic freedom and the acceptance of foreigners found in early 20th century Paris.

Their center was La Ruche (the Beehive), an octagonal cosmopolitan residence in Montparnasse funded by wealthy patrons of the Bohemian artists and writers. It was here that Serouya found a congenial environment and a group of soulmates. The artists, most of them desperately poor, were united in their commitment to art and ready to support one another when needed. Few of them made a good living from the sale of their works.

Among those who did succeed and whose paintings today command astronomical prices, were Chagall, Modigliani, and Serouya's friend Chaim Soutine, all Jewish.

IN THE years between the wars, Serouya and Soutine were very close, each admiring the other's skills and talents. They went for long walks together, discussing books and paintings, art and philosophy. The German occupation of Paris in June 1940 put an end to their walks and coffee house encounters, and after 18 years of friendship, they never met again.

Of the war years, Serouya wrote: "(Soutine) trapped like a wild beast had to hide himself, always on the move, always in danger. When he came to Paris the demon of fear never left him. One sees the feverish state of mind in which he found himself, especially with his fervent imagination. The culmination...