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The fact that this 500-page catalogue raisonné was approved by Balthus himself, the most mutable of authorities on his own life and oeuvre, will make it suspect for some historians. And the fact that the texts for the 2,100 black-and-white reproductions are in French (a long, earnest essay by Jean Clair is translated into English) will limit its usefulness for nonacademic readers. But the book is beautiful, and something even better: a cautionary tale about an artist of enormous talent tarnished by unresolved neurosis. As the poet James Fenton wrote of Joseph Cornell, even the most devoted admirer must sometimes turn away, when "the pathology glints from the depths."

Balthus has often lamented that his paintings are mistakenly discussed in terms of their subject matter, but it is the imagery that rudely seizes the viewer's attention away from the paintings' serene, early Renaissance formality and lush 19th-century brushwork, so easy on the eye, and directs it toward the spread legs of all those pubescent girls, to the knife on the floor near the nude on the bed, or to the music teacher's teeth tearing the skirt of her trapped, flailing student.

The hundreds upon hundreds of drawings here, as well as the 80 beautiful color plates of paintings, show the young Balthus as a master of haunting imagery--cats and streets and hills in shadow--that often melds Piero della Francesca's classical forms with an edgy, slightly surreal anxiety. They convey the tender poet of the European countryside, heir to both Caspar David Friedrich and Cézanne. But the nymphet pictures ultimately overshadow Balthus's body of work--not that they are anything but tame in light of today's erotic tastes--but because they come to seem the raison d'être of a second-rate romantic painter, rather than the personal quirks of a great one. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Reviews (2)

biography or art analysis?
The color reproductions are excellent, far better than most art books. My main problem with the book is that it does little to link the artist's life with the substance of the paintings. It is as though there are two thrusts in the book; Balthus' biography and his work but very little on how the two interact.

Good quality reproduction, good selection, ordinary text
I had a look at this book and I intend to buy it.

It has a good selection of pictures, including some important ones that are missing from other books (eg the guitar lesson).

Quality of images is good and captures the pictures I have seen in person well.

The commentary adds little to the pictures but does have some interesting material about Balthus. and some pictures of him.

Even though more expensive than the book by Balthus's son, it has the advantage of more background information and a lack of censorship of pictures - apparently Balthus did not want "the guitar player" to be published but it is in this book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Love him or hate him
Look at the skeletons of Balthus' familiar works. The over-worked paintings of late might lead one to assume a lack of spark.

Here you find some fresh and direct drawings on paper. You might question the subjects he chooses as I do, but the love of gesture and mark-making evident are persuasive.

Put in your library with other great draftsman. ... Read more

Book Description

The painter Balthus, whose tenacity and cultivated taste for secrecy have enveloped him in an aura of forbidding mystery, wrote this memoir at the end of his long life. A man who for decades opted to "give expression to the world" rather than to "express" himself speaks for the first and only time about his life, family, work, his theory of art and how it intersects with history, literature, and spirituality.

Balthus was born Balthasar Klossowski in 1908 to Polish art historian Erich Klossowski and his wife, the painter Elisabeth Dorothea Spiro. The family lived in Germany, France, and Switzerland. In this memoir Balthus describes his childhood with his mother and her lover -- the poet Rainer Maria Rilke -- who became Balthus's own spiritual mentor. He evokes la vie de boheme in Paris during the 1920s, his friendships with Picasso, Derain, Artaud, Giacometti, Saint-ExupÉry, RenÉ Char, Pierre Jean Jouve, and Albert Camus. He discusses his paintings, offers glimpses into his marriage, and expresses his passion for Chinese art and the Swiss chalets and Italian villas that he helped to restore. He recalls touching moments with his beloved daughter Harumi and the inspiration he drew from his cats. Also, in a kind of final lesson, Balthus shares his thoughts about painting and creation, denounces contemporary art as being illusory and deceitful, and talks candidly about his Catholic faith and how it inspired his work.

"We are most charmed by the memoir's ease of expression, as if Balthus were confiding in us, as individuals," writes Joyce Carol Oates in her introduction to Vanished Splendors. "We are brought into a startling intimacy with genius."

Reviews (1)

The great Balthus in his own words
When it comes to twentieth century painters, Balthus is one of the most important and certainly one that stands out from the rest. He is enigmatic and people often misunderstand his paintings. Vanished Splendors is Balthus' memoirs that he was working on at the time of his death. In it he puts forth his philosophy on many subjects such as art, modern art, life, religion, family, love and history. He's known or met most of the important artisians of the last century. Picasso, Camus, Artaud, Monet and more. This is a quick read and gives insight into his world and how he painted (he often took years to finish one canvas). Very enjoyable and informative. ... Read more

Book Description

"A profoundly sensual painter, both in his handling of paint and in hissubject matter. What's . . . magnificent here is the artist's sense of eroticism and immensetalent." —Booklist

With the death of Balthus in February 2001, the world lost one of the great painters of the20th century. This book, published in hardcover in 1996 to critical acclaim, offers thewidest selection available in print of Balthus's work.

The author, Balthus's son, contributes a new introduction to this expandedpaperback edition, which features two additional works: Balthus's last painting, TheWaiting, and the controversial Guitar Lesson of 1934. A unique collection of rarepersonal photographs, including images by the famed photographer Henri Cartier- Bresson, completes this tribute to one of the great artists of recent times. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Somewhat dissapointing
First thing, when I bought the book the edition was said to be, on the Amazon[.com] web site, Hardcover when it really was Paperback. Secondly, it was promoted elsewhere as "catalogue raisonné" when it does NOT include any comments on the paintings. Just as well the paintings are worth it by themselves...

Balthus
A wonderful book, considering how little is really known about the great artist, although I wish more personal information had been forthcoming. Some personal photos of Balthus at work are also included.

Authored by his son, this book attempts to dispel some of the mystery with a few photos and facts about the great man himself, yet leaves us yearning for more. However the prints of Balthus' most famous works (pubescent girls) manage to maintain the barely restrained sensuality and dreamlike quality of the original paintings - a quality usually lost in textbook prints. Here they are reproduced faithfully, and take your breath away with their sheer eroticism. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Balthus is as multifaceted and spellbinding as its subject, the 20th-century painter whose canvasses have been likened both to those of the ethereal Piero della Francesca and sadomasochistic erotica. Biographer Nicholas Fox Weber quotes Oscar Wilde when discussing Balthus's most notorious painting, in which a music teacher violently molests her young pupil: "It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.... And so Balthus claimed to me time and again. If viewers find The Guitar Lesson ... shocking or titillating, repulsive or seductive, they reveal only their own psyches, not his." Balthus repeatedly insisted on noninterpretive, pre-Freudian, stylistic observation of his paintings--mere studies in light and shadow, form and shape, composition and color--or so he would have Weber (and the reader) believe.

Weber describes his own psychological near-seduction by Balthus's proffered confidences, and his brief, initial inclination to allow the artist to dominate their interviews. Despite Balthus's gift for prevarication--romance on short notice is his specialty--Weber is astute enough to sift through every possible document. He elucidates Balthus's mother's long affair with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke; her Jewish ancestry, which Balthus denied; the atmosphere of religious mockery among the surrealists; Balthus's marriages and affairs and his obsession with pubescent girls. As the book progresses, Weber delves deeply into an analysis of the artist's psyche. In the end, he achieves remarkable, sensitive insights into the nature of Balthus's character and subjects. He patiently builds a case for the theory that even the artist's female adolescent models reflect his secret selves and fantasies, developed in reaction to many kinds of childhood pain and confusion.

Weber secures every important painting within a framework of historical reference, personal psychology, and stylistic influence. With this he demonstrates his uniqueness among biographers of artists--he actually understands painting, including its technical aspects. A hugely pleasurable read, this book compares to Hilary Spurling's The Unknown Matisse in its erudition and richness of detail. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Wish there is less of the author
Well written biography is hard to find. Often than not, you see more of the author's psychology and his hangups than the subject itself. This book has great photos of the Balthus paintings and has excellent in-depth discussions regarding the paintings. However, the author's irritation/contempt/sometimes anger towards Balthus (regarding his dishonesty about his Jewish heritage, the meaning of his art, his past, etc) shows throughout the book. I have no doubt that the artist's lies regarding these matters have importance in understanding his art. However, Mr. Weber should have a little more detachment to the subject, for I cannot help feeling that his near obsessiveness on the matters somehow prevented him from gaining deeper perspective into Balthus' psyche. This is truly dissapointing because this mars the otherwise wonderfully researched and much needed biography of the artist. I only wish that the author used more control and restrain in writing. Highly recommend for anyone interested in Balthus art.

The Weber Case
This book has disappointed me greatly.To all the negative reviews displayed here I can only add more... Its apparently well researched subject is just a cover-up for making yet another buck, using an artist who is lesser known, often misunderstood and provocative. Any biography of Balthus would have been appreciated at the time of the artist's old age and the obviously quick aproach of death, and people like Mr. Weber, unfortunately, quite often are the first to write in such moments. This is not a book about Balthus or his life or his art, it is about quickly making a name for himself and some money off Balthus, in the name of his art, when it was still possible. Inaccessability of Balthus the person has allowed only a small circle of friends, family members, and patrons to benefit financially, and socially from Balthus's name and Art, however Mr.Weber, a parvenue as he is, craved for some of it too. The result - is this book, a book about infiltrating oneself ( or trying to) into a privileged society of artists, aristocrats, wealthy collectors, celebs etc. and then - just " telling all" about who they really are: pretenders, liers, perverts and above all - anti-Semites... I only regret three thing about this book: That I have spent money to buy it ( so contributing to the cause of Mr.Weber); that I have read this book ; that we have all here read this book. PS: To my knowledge, there is not a single Novgorod near Pinsk, or anywhere in Belarus, and Mr.Weber was probably alluding to Novogrudok ( Nowogrodek, Navahrudak) about 125km from Minsk. (Weber might have thought that throwing in some obscure town names from Eastern Europe and ambelishing that book with them would make his "research" look more professional)

Capturing Balthus
This is a superb biography in which the author willingly submits to a cat and mouse game with the husband and wife team of Balthus and Setusko, both of whom seem supremely confident that they can seduce and manipulate the biographer into telling only the tale they feel the world deserves. Like a good psychoanalyst, Weber allows himself to be taken in and then slowly works his way back out, transformed, but intact. There are so many layers to this story that it makes sense for Weber to include his own narrative as a way to contain and to bind. Balthus comes across as a wonderful paradox as Weber experiences him as both tender and sadistic, real and unreal. Perhaps Weber's own propensity for sharing unflattering details of many of the people he meets along the way (a woman fondling her breast during an interview; the outrageously tasteless home of a California collector, are examples) is a natural response to the sadism that Balthus, himself, disowns time and time again. Weber engages in many acts of bravado during the writing of this book and toward the end describes an amazing meeting between Balthus and the author's own two young daughters -- they seem to have been raised with a hearty, self-assurance. At no time does one feel that the author's intrusions are gratuitous. He does a wonderful job of illuminating aspects of Balthus' life, thought,and art, and his psychoanalytic riffs on the paintings ring true and are expressed in a down-to-earth manner. Of course, how could one ever get to the heart of the matter when it comes to Balthus? But in the end, Balthus, the trickster, gets respectfully what he deserves. Certainly it might make him wince, but then for the artist who early on loved to shock, turnabout is fair play. Bravo to Nicholas Fox Weber who allows himself to feel toward his subject a complex set of emotions that when examined helps to capture some truths about this complicated artist.

Decadence! Oh my!
The story told in this book is not an original one. In fact, it is, in outline, the same story that provided Henry James with his best plots: a prim New Englander, in Europe for a noble cause, is attracted to, but finally repelled by, those decadent Europeans. Nicholas Fox Weber writes his own story, but he shows us how accurately James observed the appeal and the repulsion that a certain kind of European had -- and still has -- for a certain kind of American.

If Lambert Strether, from "The Ambassadors", or the heroine of "The Portrait of a Lady", had written about their own experiences among the rich and sophisticated old-money types from the continent, their stories would have had many similarities to Weber's. At first he is charmed and approving of the old-world manners with which he is received. Balthus is charming. He answers the phone himself! Just slightly distracted, as older people can be, Balthus regales Weber with anecdotes of the famous and infamous celebrities that he has known, and Weber feels blessed. The great artist has deigned to confide in him. He is in the presence not only of great talent, but of great taste as well, and if such a hero includes him at the dinner table, it must be a kind of validation.

It is later that he feels seduced and misled. Balthus has lied! Balthus has invented stories about himself, to seem more romantic and more mysterious! The sophistication of the great houses holds dark secrets... there is a hint of non-noble blood... there is a hint of anti-semitism.... there is a hint that even the lady of the house can commit a faux pas with the queen of Spain! There were parties in Rome which lasted all night, at which seductions may have occurred! Weber is shocked. It may be the world of the great artists, but it is definitely not the world of which a good American would approve.

There is one major difference, though, between this book and the one Lambert Strether would have written. If James' hero had been invited into the home of one of the world's wealthiest men, to see a masterpiece which few people have had a chance to see in the last 50 years, he would have shown gratitude to the man who allowed him into his bedroom. Lambert Strether, if he had seen a box of hemorrhoid medicine on the night table, would have turned his eyes away with discretion, and made no mention of it to anyone. Yet this is the detail that Weber uses as the climax of the scene, and it is not the only lurid one that seems to hold a fascination for him. When you finish reading this book, what stays in your mind is not a new understanding of Balthus' background, and still less a new look at Balthus' art. What you remember is the roll of flab around Claus von Bulow's middle, or the lovely interviewee who fondles herself.

This is not a book about Balthus. It is about Weber and his disapproval. He should have named it "Lifestyles of the Rich and Slimy". It sure was fun to read.

why?
Balthus is an intriguing painter who deserves better than this. The book is much too long, repetitive, and ultimately tiresome. It would seem as though the author doesn't know how to look at paintings. He's alternately fawning in the face of celebrity, and nasty. Don't bother with this one. Look at the paintings instead. ... Read more

Book Description

Balthazar Klossowski, known as Balthus, is largely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most important painters-- as well as the most scandalous. His dreamlike canvases populated with pubescent girls in provocative poses garnered him both praise and scorn from artists and critics alike. This volume, edited by renowned scholar Jean Clair, includes more than 400 color plates and includes essays by the premier experts on Balthus's work and life as well as recollections of the artist by his colleagues and friends.

Since the beginning of his seventy-five year career, he was admired for his extraordinary ability to straddle tradition and modernity, as is evident with his references to Renaissance masters such as Piero della Francesca. His work also revealed ties to early modernism as his first apprenticeships were guided by Claude Monet, Emile Bonnard, and André Derain. Nonetheless, by 1926, the year of his first solo exhibition in Paris, the exceptional "newness" of his work had garnered him a distinguished following including major French intellectuals such as Georges Bataille, Albert Camus, and Antonin Artaud.

This volume, which accompanies the largest exhibition to date of the artist's work, traces every stage of Balthus's career including an essay devoted to his early life and influences as well as a chapter devoted to the influence of Chinese paintings on his landscapes. A portion of the book is devoted to recollections by his friends who shed light on the elusive painter's life. The volume is complete with an extensive catalogue of his work which includes paintings, drawings, sketches for theatre sets as well as scores of photos of the artist taken by major photographers.
... Read more

Reviews (3)

A solid collection of studies
This book is really a must for anyone who wishes to know everything there is "available" to know about the painter's work and position vis-a-vis modern art in relation to the traditional canon of European painting.
A job of this size would have been simply too much for any one author to handle alone with the degree of thoroughness that was attempted here; and so it was not. Many scholars have come together to shed light on various facets of Balthus' work: reference, method, technique, and influence. Here you will find a rich collection of obscure sketches, out-takes, doodles, and comparisons / parallels with Master paintings.

In addition to the essays and studies, every Balthus painting collected in this volume is examined individually but concisely: text on one page with the painting on the other so that one can understand what is being described, and appreciate the work at the same time.

HOWEVER, the color reproductions are less than 5 stars. Leans too much to brown/red. If color accuracy is important to you, Claude Roy's is the best so far. So if you love B's work, get both: I did. For the richness of the analyses, this one is hands-down superior, and indispensible.

Guy Davenport did some amazing analysis of B's work -- collected in his _Bathus Notebook_ This wonderful work is cited on several occasions and deservedly so. Study B's work better and you will avoid the meretricious vulgrity of applying adjectives like "perverse" to B's work, or "nubile" to speak of nudes, as if the word were synonymous with 'erotic,' or 'slim.' The question of nubility (marriageability) is simply irrelevant, and this book will reward the thoughtful reader by disabusing her of the banality of art-talk cliches and solecisms.

If you are more than just an "art appreciator," then this volume will help to enrich your understanding of art beyond just Balthus'.

All about Balthus
The painter Balthus, nee Balthazar Klossowski, is one of the most original and disturbing of European modern painters.He is something of a cult. I am happy to have received, promptly, this rather smart, large book dedicated entirely to his enigmatic work. This is the capricious plastic world of the elusive painter Balthus, where females endlessly appear, like succubus, gracing an artistic landscape that's both alluring and repulsive. One cannot help but compare some of the imagery in the Interpretation of Dreams by Freud, to the visions depicting Balthus sexual agonies. Look up Balthus 'La Chambre' on page 329, perhaps one of the most inspired and perverse canvases, ever. There is no other painter like him. Like Picasso he shocks, but with a much more simple and personal vocabulary. There is something of El Greco here, the angst. He is limited like Modigliani though soon his ouvre becomes very telling. A persistent parade of pictorially enticing nubiles that is both delicious and repellent. The book by Rizzoli is a treasure almost 500 pages in all. Part art book part encyclopedic tome. Many color pages. In this book by Jean Clair there are, along the many art pages, also photographs, sketches, private correspondence, etc. A lot of personal information offered us fascinated by Balthus. It's a big book that can double as an object d'art. I'm more than pleased with it.

Death of a master
The French artist Balthus, considered one of the world's greatest realist painters, has died at the age of 92.

Balthus, whose full name was Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, died on February 2001. He was known for his disturbing and erotic works of girls on the verge of womanhood. In the early 30s, he held exhibitions displaying his paintings of young women, groups of people and scenes from both the town and countryside.
Balthus inspired and influenced the art world for more than six decades but remained a mystery to all but a handful of intimate friends.
He also agreed to publication of photographs of a lavish fancy dress party for his 92nd birthday, where guests included actor Tony Curtis and U2's Bono. ... Read more

Book Description

An insightful and candid portrait of the artist Balthus.Presented in the form of ABC questions, Balthus:In His Own Words reveals his personal universe."B" for beauty, "H" for Homer, "M" for Mozart, "S" for SOS, Balthus takes us through his intimate thoughts and views on everything from Paris to Chinese calligraphy.Balthus (1908-2001) learned how to paint at the Louvre museum and in Italy.A figurative artist, he gained a reputation for his incisive style and incredible precision.Balthus sometimes spent years on one painting, obsessively observing and re-creating on canvas.Later, he focused on the nude, particularly on adolescent girls, which fell halfway between innocence and perversion.As the last book written in his own words before his death, it has even more significance.The artists's voice shines through, offering an authentic and personal perspective. ... Read more