Museum Space of Chaim Soutine

A Story That Became a Legend

Chaim Soutine was born in 1893 in Smilavichy, into the poorest Jewish family of a tailor — one of eleven children. The boy, who used to draw with charcoal on walls, was neither understood nor welcomed; he was even beaten. But he ran away to Paris, rose from a loader to a friend of Modigliani, and today his paintings sell at auction for 28 million dollars. The exhibition in his native town opened in 2008 with the support of UNESCO — and that marked a true return of Soutine's spirit to his small homeland.

Since its opening, «The Space of Chaim Soutine» has welcomed over 20,000 visitors from Israel, France, Italy, Germany, and the United States. And this is in a town of just 6,000 people! Today, Smilavichy is a unique cultural preserve: a mosque, an Orthodox church, a Tatar and a Jewish cemetery coexist here, and the only felt-making factory in Belarus is still operating. It is here, in this town where time seems to have stood still for a hundred years, that you will see how a genius of the «School of Paris» was born.

You will walk through three halls. «At Home» — authentic household items of a Jewish shtetl from the early 20th century, old photographs, and the very air that young Chaim breathed. «Parisian Café» — a stylisation of the legendary «La Rotonde», where Picasso, Chagall and Modigliani argued at the tables. A separate hall will open for you the name of Schraga Tsarfatin — a sculptor called «the Belarusian Rodin», but almost forgotten today. All three spaces are living history, which you can not only see but also feel.

You can imagine how a boy from a destitute family looked at the same street, only to later shake Paris. Book your excursion to the Chaim Soutine Museum through us — we will find a convenient time, tell you hidden details not found in guidebooks, and help you truly touch the legend.