Balthus

(1908-2001)

(Balthasar Klossowski de Rola)

   painter

   Born in Paris, Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, or Balthus, as he is known, was the brother of Pierre Klossowski. He learned to paint in the louvre and in italy, and his technique is similar to fresco, with a tempera base. His treatment of space is influenced by the italian primitives. He caused a sensation and became widely known in the 1930s for interior scenes depicting disturbing eroticism (Alice: la leçon de guitare). Inspired by Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, he brought to his own work the atmosphere of the Gothic novel in his enigmatic portraits of young women shown in bleak surroundings. Always on the edge of artistic trends, Balthus painted landscapes in the same vein. His work, which later became more academic, is still based on the dual theme of a provocative and suggestive eroticism and monumentalism (La Rue, 1933; Le Passage du Commerce-Saint-André, 1952-53). Balthus served as the curator of the Villa Medici in Rome from 1961 to 1976.