Pubescent Girls and Japanese Cats: The Art Of Balthus, Hannibal Lecters Uncle

We feel a bit ashamed, as this artist was not presented in our gallery until today. Anyway, better late than never, and we fill this gap right now. Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (1908-2001), also known as Balthus (his childhood nickname), was born in a family of Polish expatriates. From an early age until his death, he lived in an artistic environment and remained a prominent figure in Western art. Some of us would call Balthus a lucky one since André Gide and Jean Cocteau were frequent guests in the Kollosowski family. The artist's first book, which he created at 13, was published with the help of his stepfather, poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Silence of the Lambs

Balthus himself liked to produce myths about his biography, and his marriage to Japanese woman Setsuko Ideta with 36 years age gap (she was younger than him) created an additional exotic vibe. It seems that Balthus would be thankful to Thomas Harris, who made him an uncle of Hannibal Lecter in his sequel to The Silence of the Lambs.

Fig. 1. Balthus, portrait by Oliver Mark, 2000 (Wikipedia.org)

Fig. 2. Thérèse Dreaming, 1938 (wikiart.org)

Fig. 3. Girl and Cat, 1937 (wikiart.org)

Uncomfortable Sexuality

Balthus is famous for his images of teenage girls in provocative poses. Just like Irina Ionesco's photography, the art of Balthus makes people feel uncomfortable. In 2017, some purists signed a petition to remove his painting Thérèse Dreaming from the exposition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Interestingly, when the same painting was exposed at the Museum Ludwig in Germany in 2007, there weren't any complaints. Nevertheless, it's not the most scandalous work of Balthus, while Guitar Lesson (1934) quite surely is.

Fig. 4. Guitar Lesson, 1934 (arthive.com)

Fig. 5. Preparatory sketch (wikiart.org)

Fig. 6. Le Violon d'Ingres, 1924 (Wikipedia.org)

Fig. 7. Nude With a Guitar, 1986 (wikiart.org)

A Violent Violin And A Guitar Girl

The composition with an adult dominating over a kid slightly resembles the famous Young Virgin Spanking The Infant Jesus (1923) by Max Ernst. The scene can be interpreted as punishing a naughty pupil who doesn't want to do what she's told. At the same time, the attempt of the woman to play a girl like a guitar may be a metaphor for adults manipulating kids. The naked breast of the woman that may symbolize maternity, in our view, is a detail that partly legitimizes such "psychological" interpretation. The girl's exposed private parts and a small guitar on the floor together actualize a widespread analogy between a woman and a musical instrument, which can be seen, for instance, in Man Ray's Le Violon d'Ingres (1924), where model Kiki is compared to a violin. The fact that in 1986 Balthus refers to this analogy again in his painting Nude With a Guitar proves that we're dealing here rather with a well-known poetic comparison renewed by sado-erotic features than with an image of child abuse. All in all, if this picture seems to someone offensive, this is what Balthus aimed for. American poet Stephen Dobyns interprets the painting in his book The Balthus Poems (1982) in the following way:

Fig. 8. Stephen Dobyns, The Guitar Lesson (Poetry Vol. 138, No. 4 (Jul., 1981), pp. 188-189)

Alice's Adventures

Where little girls appear, the name of Lewis Carroll appears as well. The photographs of Alice Liddell and other girls made by Carroll are one of the sources of Balthus' inspiration and the most obvious parallel to his works. Let's mention that not only Carroll's photographs but also illustrations of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland created by John Tenniel apparently influenced Balthus' works. The nude girl in his painting of 1950 looks like a more explicit version of giant Alice stuck in White Rabbit's house.

Fig. 9. Left: Girl On a Bed, 1950 (wikiart.org); right: John Tenniel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

Become a Premium member now and enjoy the deluxe version including many additional pics and insights, like the similarities between Balthus' depiction of teenage girls and Kuniyoshi's shunga work, the influences of Japanese culture on his art and vice versa.

Click HERE for an article on the controversial photography of Irina Ionesco

Sources: Wikipedia.org; conchigliadivenere.wordpress.com; corquevols.blogspot.com; jstor.org