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Shocking Paris by Stanley Meisler: book review



Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse (2015) is about the foreign-born immigrant painters in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. ‘Most came from the Russian empire, almost all were Jewish, and they made an impact on the history of art before most Parisians realized they were there.’ These include AmedeoModigliani, Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, and Jules Pascin.The area was Montparnasse in Paris. 

Meisler begins with Soutine (1893-1943), the tenth of eleven children, who moved to Paris in 1913 in extreme poverty, but regarded as the most talented of foreign artists of the time. Then Soutine’s close friend Italian-born Modigliani (1884-1920), who died at the age of 35 – and whose painting Nude Sitting on a Divan (1917) sold at auction on 14 May 2018 for $157 million – arrived in Paris. 

Not much is known about Soutine, because he was so secretive – even his partner of three-years, Gerda Groth, had not seen his work. Although Marie-Berthe Aurenche who moved into Soutine’s apartment in 1940 did see his work, she thought his portrait of her was ugly. Chagall, on the other hand, was more outgoing. Chagall (1887-1985) had written his own memoir at the age of 35 and was a prolific letter-writer. 

Meisler also writes of the impact of World War I and World War II, which affected the lives of the French, and the foreign artists. Continually  nervous and in fear of the German Gestapo, and the French police, took a toll on Soutine’s health, already an intense painter with bouts of depression. After the war, the tight community of foreign artists disbanded and were not a large presence in Paris again. 

While the author sub-titles the book ‘Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse’ there is a heavy concentration on Chaim Soutine, even though Marc Chagall lived for another 40 years. The author has ‘ties’ to Soutine, although is not related. Nevertheless, the book brings to light the lives of the three greats of the time – Soutine, Modigliani, and Chagall – particularly the short lives of the first two, and their influences and muses, set before and during the Second World War. It’s an interesting read. 



MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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