BalthusFrench, 1908–2001The Living Room
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Although his first exhibition was in a Surrealist gallery and he had many friends among the Surrealists, Balthus never adopted the methods of Surrealism. He has no interest in the visual puns, automatism, or abstraction at the center of that movement. What he does share with Surrealism is an interest in eroticism as a central fact of psychic life. His constant theme is the self-absorbed, dawning sexuality of adolescent girls.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- 66.66
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — ©Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Meanwhile, in the life of Balthus
The whole life1930s
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 October 1942
Son born: Stanislas Klossowski de Rola
