Balthus

French painter, Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, known as Balthus, was born in Paris in 1908 of aristocratic Polish parents, both of whom painted. Although Balthus had no formal artistic training, he had the reputation of being an infant prodigy and was encouraged by family friends, Derain and Bonnard, who had a strong influence on him up to 1930. It was at this time that the chief characteristics of Balthus’s style became fixed: a convinced figurative artist and opposed to all forms of abstraction.

Balthus died 18 February 2001. This catalogue of the exhibition of his work, held at the Palazzo...