Biography b. Zaloudock, nr Vilna [now Vilnius], Lithuania, 21 July 1890; d. 5 April 1981. French painter of Lithuanian birth. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Vilna from 1909 to 1910. He moved to Paris in 1912, living in Montmartre in the studio complex known as La Ruche, where he was soon joined by Chaïm Soutine and Michel Kikoïne (1892–1968), whom he had met at the art school in Vilna. Both he and Soutine were represented by the dealers Paul Guillaume and Léopold Zborowski and had friends in common, including Amedeo Modigliani. Although he first exhibited as a sculptor, he soon gave this up and devoted himself to painting. He developed a lyrical, partly expressionist style under the influence of Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh, the paint applied with a full brush, but his work always remained gentler and more naturalistic than Soutine’s and without the latter’s frenzied distortions. His colures, which were at first sombre, later became strong and fiery. Besides figure studies and still-life's, such as Coffee Pot and Grapes (1929; untraced), his works included a number of landscapes, mostly scenes in the south of France at Cagnes or Céret. He also visited and worked in Corsica (1924), Scandinavia (1927) and Israel. During the German Occupation he was obliged, as a Jew, to go into hiding in the free zone at Céret, but his life was otherwise uneventful and dedicated to his painting.
