I was curious to see what might have become of Soutine’s L’arbe de Vence, an oil painting he made in 1929. It’s one of my favourite Soutine paintings. It was only when I saw it at the exhibition Soutine|Kossoff recently at Hastings Contemporary that I wondered how the actual tree was faring these days.

“According to legend, this ash tree was planted in 1538 on the orders of Francis I of France, to thank the citizens of Vence for hosting his delegation during negotiations for the Treaty of Nice with Charles V of Spain. A tourist attraction in Soutine's day as now, the venerable ash has … a strikingly individual character. As with his portraits of this period, he shows us an immediately recognizable likeness, the branches dark against vivid blue. Painterly experiment is mostly confined to the trunk of the tree, across which we see a play of blue, yellow and red, while the circular bench below is a lustrous Soutine green.” Notes from Hastings Contemporary wall panel at the exhibition Soutine|Kossoff. The painting comes from a private collection.

Looks like it’s doing very well. The bench has gone though.