Balthus at Met

The Mountain, 1936-37
oil on canvas

The Mountain: I tried to catch the image with my camera, then I gave up; it's impossible to get the subtlety of the play of light and darkness, so I recurred at a very good photo, from a weblog that says, a quirky representation of young hikers in the Bernese Oberland, with is references to Courbet, Caspar David Friedrich and Poussin that it approaches pastiche.

And then I passed to Thérèse: I was thinking at a portrait of a boy, by Botticelli, on view at Washington National Gallery. The portrait by Botticelli is subtly ambiguous; the portrait by Balthus is openly provocative and raises many questions.

And those who put questions suggest also possible answers. Was the master a pervert, as some believe? Maybe not, others would say, he was so disgusted by the common mentality regarding art, by the common social values, that he could only be sarcastic in his ouevres, no other way.

Well, the artist was very straight in giving an answer, once for all: his paintings shouldn't be read about, just looked at. Here is the telegram he sent for his 1968 retrospective at Tate:

NO BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. BEGIN: BALTHUS IS A PAINTER OF WHOM NOTHING IS KNOWN. NOW LET US LOOK AT THE PICTURES. REGARDS. B

Thérèse, 1938
oil on cardboard

(The Met)

(Balthus)