Boustani

Wassim Boustani

Professor Schwabach

Art History II, Section V1

1 May 2004

The Figurative and Scandalous Balthus

Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, known as Balthus (1908-2001), French

painter, was born in Paris and began painting at the age of sixteen. Although, his first

published work was at the age of 12—a collection of 40 sketches about his lost cat, called

Mitsou. He was the son of Polish art historian and painter, Erich Klossowski and the

painter Elizabeth Dorothea. Balthus was influenced by Bonnard up to 1930, where his

characteristic style became fixed. He was now a figurative artist, opposed to all forms of

abstraction. In 1930 and 1931, he served in the French military in Morocco, and returned

to Paris in 1932 where he met famous painters. (Artchive)

His 1935 La Lecon de guitare caused scandal at its exhibition in 1977 at a gallery

in New York, because it showed a female teacher holding a child in a compromising

position on her lap. Balthus later admitted that he intended to shock the public, and later

prohibited its reproduction in the hopes of removing it from his works.

In the 1930s, Balthus met Alberto Giacometti whom became his best friend and

consultant on all artistic matters. In 1938, the New York gallery Pierre Matisse organized

its first Balthus exhibition. In 1941, Picasso bought Balthus' painting Les Enfants

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Blanchard. In 1942, Balthus returned to Switzerland with Antoinette to Savoya, where

his son Stanislas was born. In 1944, his son Thadée was born.

He produced paintings in muted tones based on the observation of things and

people. He refused to draw imaginary worlds, but instead limited himself to realism.

After 1945, his subject-matter changed to nude adolescent girls caught sleeping or in

private moments, almost perversely. He detested the fact that painting became an

occasion for discussion, because for him it was impossible to reduce it to any language.

He went on to draft the stage sets and costumes for a number of plays. The

financial support of friends consisting of collectors and art dealers permitted him a good

standard of living. In 1956, he exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In

1961, he was assigned as director of the Academie de France in Rome. In 1962, on a trip

to Japan, he met Setsuko Ideta, whom he married five years later. His third son Fumio

was born in 1968, but died only two years later. In 1973, his daughter Harumi was born.

(Louis)

In 1977, Balthus left Rome for Switzerland, where he remained until his death.

The Grand Chalet was a four-storey building with over 100 windows, which had served

as a hotel before his arrival. He could only afford the Chalet with the help of a loan from

Pierre Matisse. He had to regularly sell paintings to support its upkeep, as well as his

lifestyle. His work continued to be exhibited internationally. In 1998, the University of

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Wroclaw (Poland) presented him with an honorary doctorate. In 2000, the Catalogue

raisonné with Balthus' complete works was published. (AP)

Balthus' friends were such famous contemporaries as Rilke, Picasso, Miró, Dalí,

the Giacomettis, Braque and the film maker Federico Fellini. He remained faithful to

figurative painting during the 20th century, even through the tides of Cubism and

Surrealism. Picasso once said of him: "Balthus is so much better than all these young

artists who do nothing but copy me. He is a real painter." As his sight worsened with old

age, he moved to landscape painting. (Louis)

After his death in 2001, Paris reacted with sorrow. France’s president Jacques

Chirac wrote: "An artist of exceptional talent both in drawing and painting, Balthus gave

himself entirely to his art which he wanted to make timeless." Prime Minister Lionel

Jospin said: "France has lost an artist who left a deep mark on contemporary art."

Balthus will be known for his provocative paintings of young women, but also of

his dreamlike Parisian street scenes and conventional landscapes. He remained a mystery

to all but a few good friends. His own self-analysis was quoted to be "Balthus is a painter

of whom nothing is known." There was gossip that he invented the title of Count and

that Rola was merely a revision of the Lake Geneva village of Role where he lived with

his first wife. A longtime heavy smoker, Balthus was frail in his final years and was

cared for by his second wife, the Japanese artist Setsuko Setsuko -- 35 years younger than

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him. He leaves behind approximately 350 paintings and 1600 drawings. (AP)

The Mountain, 1937. Oil on canvas; H. 98, W. 144 in.

Completed in 1937, “The Mountain” came about three years after Balthus’ first

one-man exhibition. This is his largest canvas and one of a few with figures in a

landscape. It was first exhibited in 1939 with the title “Summer,” and remains the only

completed painting in a project cycle of four seasons. Seven figures are located on an

imaginary plateau near the top of the Niederhorn in the Bernese Oberland, a landscape

familiar to Balthus since childhood. The figures seem unaware of one another, with their

trancelike gazes.

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There seems to be a direct correspondence between the shape and posture of each

person and the surrounding mountain formations. The man on the left takes the shape of

the hill by kneeling, while the woman sleeping on the ground lays flat like the hill side.

The woman extending her arms parallels the highest mountain peak to her left, and the

other three follow the flow of the rock formations around them. An individual figure on

the top right climbs the hill. (MET)

Works cited:

Associated Press. “CNN World“ Real Painter—Balthus dies, aged 92 28 Feb. 2001. 29 April 2004 <http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/france/02/18/balthus/>.

The Artchive. “Surrealism” Balthus 29 April 2004 <http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/balthus.html>.

Gerber, Louis. “Balthus Cosmopolis” Balthus biography—in memoriam 29 April 2004 <http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo14/balthus.htm>.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Works of Art—Modern Art” The Mountain, 1937 29 April 2004 <http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=21&viewmode=0&item=1982%2E530>.

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