Editing Chaïm Soutine (section)

==German invasion==
Soon afterwards France was invaded by German troops. As a Jew, Soutine had to escape from the French capital and hide to avoid arrest by the [[Gestapo]]. From the beginning of 1941, he moved from one place to another and was sometimes forced to seek shelter in forests, sleeping outdoors. Leaving his companion Marie-Berthe Aurenche's home on Littré Street, he sought refuge on Rue des Plants, where she had friends, the painter [[Marcel Laloë]] and his wife. Fearing denunciation by their caretaker, they later assisted in the couple's escape, with fake documents, to a village in [[Indre-et-Loire]], [[Champigny-sur-Veude]]. Expelled from several inns where their untidiness or Marie-Berthe's outbursts were criticized, the couple eventually found a house for rent on the way to [[Chinon]], where friends discreetly visited them.

There, despite intense stomach pains that soon forced him to subsist solely on porridge, the painter resumed his work, supplied with canvases and colors by the painter Marcel Laloë.<ref name="OR10">{{harvsp|Renault|2012|pp=140–141}}.</ref> The landscapes from the years 1941–1942 seem to have abandoned warm tones, such as the ''Landscape of Champigny''. ''The Big Tree'' painted in Richelieu strained Soutine's relationship with the Castaings as he reduced the canvas size before delivering it to them.<ref>{{harvsp|Renault|2012|p=142}}.</ref> However, he also tackled new and lighter subjects like ''The Pigs'' or ''The Return from School after the Storm''. He also created portraits of children and more serene maternity scenes.<ref name="MJ4">{{harvsp|Jover|2007|p=32}}.</ref>