Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (Balthus) , was born on the 29th of February 1908 in Paris, France and passed away on the 18th of February 2001 in Rossiniere, Switzerland, was a polish-french artist who based his pieces around 'creepy' and controversial concepts. Balthus had a very strong fixation on young girls, his paintings were mainly based around 'juene fille' translated to; young girl. Balthus wife, Setsuko Klossowska de Rola, said that Blathus would spend up to 2 years on a painting, changing the features of each girl to properly capture the essence of young, pubescent girls. Balthus' art pieces showcased ideas of sexuality, society, transgression and the personal state of isolation. His art style is the classical painting style, but instead applies these concepts to make his art different and unique to other artists pieces.
Girl and Cat
This piece is a good representation of Balthus sexual paintings, this piece is named Girl and Cat and was finished in 1937. The girl in this painting was one of Balthus neighbours, Therese Blanchard. Therese Blanchard was the 11 year old daughter of a restaurant worker, Balthus was intrigued by this girl and created 10 painting of her. This was due to her knowledge of sexuality and her acceptance of her nymphet trait. In the painting it is noticeable that the girl is very self aware and confident with who she is, showing that she is more mature, way beyond her years, but the clothing she wears indicated her youth and this nymphet persona she fore takes in.
Balthus has been severely criticized for his art, critics and viewers calling him perverted and insane and was even question is he was a pornographer , but even though Balthus was abused with this, he continued to paint these concepts. Balthus said "Little girls are the only creature today who can be little Poussions" Balthus is incredibly intrigued with the essence of young, pubescent girls, Balthus doesn't see his art as perverted or pornographic as he believes its all just a character study and that he develops the girl's he paints.
My Opinion In my opinion I do not believe that Balthus is a 'pervert' or a 'pornographer' I believe he sees and interpret things in a different way to what other people would. I also think that he paints these concepts just for the purpose to shock and anger people. I believe that Balthus likes to shock people with his paintings and that his concepts of "nymphets" are mainly just a character development of the people he knows. I think that Balthus likes to sexualise these young girls in order to showcase a darker more creepier side of how these girls are going through an incredibly confusing change.