Sleeping Girl

1930s

His Paris circle: Artaud, Giacometti, Miró, Derain

Back in Paris, Balthus joins the circle of the Surrealists; his work is admired early on by André Breton and Pablo Picasso. His friends include the writers Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Henri Michaux, Michel Leiris and René Char, the photographer Man Ray, the playwright Antonin Artaud, and the painters André Derain, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti, one of his most faithful friends.

1940

Flees the invasion for Savoy

When German forces invade France in 1940, Balthus and his wife Antoinette flee to Savoy, to a farm in Champrovent near Aix-les-Bains.

1940s

Turns from Surrealism to a manner of his own

By the early 1940s Balthus has finally left the principles of Surrealism behind; his attention is drawn to the theme of awakening femininity, and symbolic motifs — a mirror, a butterfly, a cat — and adolescent girls in domestic settings begin to appear in his canvases.

1942

Escapes occupied France for Switzerland

In 1942 Balthus escapes from occupied France to Switzerland, first to Bern.

13. oktober 1942

Son born: Stanislas Klossowski de Rola