With the death of Balthus in February 2001, the world lost one of the most admired painters of recent years.
Balthus' apprenticeship was guided by Monet, Maurice Denis, Bonnard and Derain, and in maturity he enjoyed the friendship of Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille, Lacan, Camus and André Malraux. He excelled as a portraitist (notably of his painter colleagues André Derain and Joan Miró) and as a landscape painter in a tradition that went back to Nicholas Poussin. Above all, Balthus was known for paintings of equivocal figure subjects, young women in poses or situations that were regarded as enigmatic or suggestive or both.
This catalogue of the major exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice is the definitive survey of the life and work of this extraordinary artist. It explores the many influences on his impressive oeuvre: his long Italian sojourns; his contacts with the theatre; and his love of Chinese painting.
This beautiful volume includes hundreds of colour illustrations, interviews with the artist, recollections from those who knew him, and essays by leading art historians.
Jean Clair is the editor of Balthus's catalogue raisonné and is widely considered the world's foremost authority on the artist's work