Still Life with Rayfish
1923
Hanging ominously in the upper half of the canvas, a flayed rayfish stares back at the viewer with a gaping, almost human-like mouth, its fleshy reds and sickly greens swirling in a chaotic dance. Soutine, a master of Expressionism, took the traditional still life and injected it with raw, visceral emotion, making the dead fish look like a tortured soul screaming in agony. Below this macabre centerpiece, a humble teapot and a cluster of fruit sit quietly on a rumpled white cloth, grounding the scene in everyday reality while the fish dominates with its grotesque beauty. Legend has it that the smell of the rotting fish in Soutine's studio was so unbearable that his neighbors actually called the police, thinking someone had died!
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