Soutine’s painting – expressionistic in a place and time dominated by cubistic influences – has left him overshadowed in many histories. Three of Soutine’s closest friends, Zadkine, Lipchitz and Chagall, met in the studio building la Ruche, were also from Belarus and of Jewish stock. Lipchitz had been introduced by Modigliani, who also introduced him to his first patron and dealer. Cendrars (Russian-speaking and friendly with exiles in Paris) was another neighbour and friend. Miller briefly lived above him. While Picasso, Laurens, Jacob, Satie, Laurencin and Delaunay were all associates, Soutine’s awkward timidity and poor French left him a perpetual outsider.