Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne
Private collection, since 1984
Lausanne, Galerie Alice Pauli, Balthus, Giacometti, Bonnard: Dessins de collections, 17 May – 14 July 1984, no. 12, ill.
Andros, Museum of Contemporary Art-Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Balthus: Dessins, acquarelles, huiles, 30 June –17 September 1990, no. 93, ill. p. 117 (the exhibition subsequently travelled to Rome, under the aegis of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, 9 October – 18 November 1990, catalogue Balthus a la Villa Medici, ill. p. 163)
Bern, Kunstmuseum, Balthus, Zeichnungen, 18 June – 4 September 1994, no. 73, ill. p. 100
Andros, Museum of Contemporary Art-Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Glancing at the Century, 28 June – 20 September 1998, pp. 120-121, ill. p. 121
At the age of 72 years old, Balthus decided to come face to face with a fundamental theme in the history of art: the painter and his model. This special relationship, being often the object of mysterious fantasies, was well-known to the painter who had been always in need of the presence of a model to paint. His preference for young girls, often at a transitional age between childhood and adolescence, is obvious. When he finally addressed on canvas this subject so familiar in his daily life but so unknown to his art, he simply chose to lay the scene he knew best: a painter of a certain age, tall and slender, and a child soon to be a woman, who comes to enliven the loneliness of the studio with her presence.
In order to prepare the work he had in mind, he realized only seven drawings, including the one shown here. The painter, viewed from behind and relieved of any accessory that would imply his occupation, seems busy in front of a large window flooding a corner of the studio with light. The young girl, on her knees, bends over a chair so as to read something that looks like an album. Despite the fact that their eyes do not meet and that the furniture depicted is made to be very modest, the ambiance issued from the scenery is warm, the aesthetics is fine and the relationship established between the two figures is well represented. By avoiding the moment of posing, Balthus opts therefore for keeping his scene away from every kind of instantness and highlights thereby all the necessary time between a painter and his model, in order to establish a relationship based on trust, respect and attentiveness.
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