Balthus:„Thérèse rêvant”, 1938, Oil on canvas. Detail. Dimensions: 59 x 51 in.
About this Work
The artist, Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, or Balthus, had used the model, Thérèse Blanchard, the daughter of a neighboring Parisian restaurant worker, over the course of three years, making 10 paintings of her beginning in 1936, when she was 11. The image features her at 12 or 13, with her legs bent and slightly apart, her eyes closed, her thoughts seemingly lost to fantasy. A failed petition to remove this Balthus painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2017 is the latest worrying attempt to censor a work of art. Balthus and his keepers always argued that it was the viewer who has imparting notions of sexual deviance onto his images, that the intent wasn’t his.
About the Artist
Balthus, a highly talented artist, an eccentric provocateur. One who lived entirely in his world and worked incessantly on the only “true” image. Balthus was friends with Federico Fellini, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and others. The art dealer Pierre Matisse occasionally supported him financially in order to pay for his luxurious lifestyle. For Albert Camus he designed stage sets and costumes. When Balthus, born on 29 February 1908, died in Switzerland in February 2001, numerous celebrities stood at his grave, including Rockstar Bono of U2, photo model Elle Macpherson and Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. Balthus, shocked the Paris art world with his dreamy, sensual neo-classical portraits of nymphs at a time when surrealism and abstraction were forbidden territories. As a provocateur he was condemned, as an artist he was considered a child prodigy. His erotic and poetic paintings are among the best figurative works of modernity.
Balthus, Thérèse rêvant, 1938 / 2018, offset print, Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm. Ask for price.
Balthus, Passage du Commerce Saint André, giclée print on 310 g/m² offset, acid free, light resistant, dimension picture: 24 x 30 cm.Ask for price.
Balthus, Thérèse, 1938 / 2018, giclée print on 310 g/m² offset, acid free, light resistant, dimension picture: 24 x 30 cm.Ask for price.
Balthus: ‘Europa Donna’, 1994, lithograph, signed, edition of 198, size illustration: 35 x0 x 24.00 in / 88.9 x 61.0 cm, Publisher Graphica Uno. Very good condition. Price € 4.200.- ORDER HERE.
Balthus: ‘Sans Titre VI”, 1994, Lithograph after Balthus on Arches paper, signed in pencil by the artist, extracted from the album published by the Navarra Gallery, Paris, edition of 150, unnumbered collaborator’s proof. Illustration size: 41,8 x 58,3 cm, paper size: 55 x 76 cm, very good condition. Price € 2.200.- ORDER HERE.
BALTHUS – Portrait of Painter Balthus and His Niece Frederique Tison at the Chateau De Chassy, photograph by Dean Loomis, dimension: 60 x 60 cm.Ask for price.
