The Call of the Mother

The plot of the first marble panel "The Call of the Mother" tells us about one painful evening at the home of Soutine's parents in Smilovichi. Not at all old, but tormented by life circumstances, Khaim's mother, Sarah Khlamovna, decided to send a plaintive letter, with a plea for the last meeting with her son after 22 years.

In the eyes of a tired woman who, in such a distant time, held a small screaming bundle in her arms, protected him and gave him what she could, and now with a heavy heart calls him home, asks him to "pay his son's duty" - to come for the last meeting with his mother.

Sarah sat at the table, where at the end of another hard day only a plate of herring was waiting - everything that she and her father could afford. The vulnerable mother's heart was saddened by the thought that the son might not come, succumbing to children's fears of his father.

Zalman, the father of Soutine Jr., stood silently by the wall for some time, looking at the old picture “Russian”, once drawn by his son, and then took a sheet of paper. “My son, I am writing to you in great need. We live very poorly, your sisters are ill, and your mother already sees poorly and, probably, is already living her last days. The cow has been gone for a long time, it was stolen even under the old government, during the next pogrom. It’s hard for me to remember how I beat you, which is why I bitterly repent, but I still think that it did you good - you broke into people, became a master. Don’t waste the money you earn, but save it up and send it to us: we need a cow, the house needs repairs, the boat is leaking, and I need new boots ... "

Of course, Soutine decided to buy a cow and send it home, but he was still thinking about visiting his relatives, he remembered well how his father beat him in childhood, and therefore he was afraid that he would not let him go.