Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Balthus
Balthus (Count Balthasar Klossowski de Rola)bôl'thəs, băl'–, 1908–2001, Polish-French painter, b. Paris. Balthus is widely regarded as one of the most important figurative painters of the modern era. He began painting as a young man and had his first one-man show in 1934. Balthus soon developed a distinctive style, producing poetic, calm, yet erotically charged and oddly disorienting paintings. Many of them are extremely large with thickly built-up surfaces and feature dreamy, sensual, and enigmatically posed adolescent girls. His other typical subjects are brooding landscapes and distinctive portraits. Balthus was also known for his stage designs.
See his memoirs (2002); biography by N. F. Weber (1999).
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Wikipedia search results for: Balthus
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Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, best known as Balthus, was an esteemed but controversial Polish-French modern artist.
Throughout his career, Balthus rejected the usual conventions of the art world. He insisted that his paintings should be seen and not read about, and he resisted any attempts made to build a biographical profile. A telegram sent to the Tate Gallery as it prepared for its 1968 retrospective of his works read: "NO BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. BEGIN: BALTHUS IS A PAINTER OF WHOM NOTHING IS KNOWN. NOW LET US LOOK AT THE PICTURES. REGARDS. B."
In his formative years his art was sponsored by Rainer Maria Rilke, Maurice Denis,
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Titian, c.1490–1576, Venetian painter, whose name was Tiziano Vecellio, b. Pieve di Cadore in the Dolomites. Of the very first rank among the artists of the Renaissance, Titian had an immense ...
