This catalogue of the major exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice is the definitive survey of the life and work of this extraordinary artist. It explores the many influences on his impressive oeuvre: his long Italian sojourns; his contacts with the theatre; and his love of Chinese painting, the essence of which he frequently invoked in his own work.With hundreds of colour illustrations,as well as interviews with the artist,recollections from those who knew him, and essays by leading art historians, this major retrospective is an essential addition to every art lover's collection.

  With the death of Balthus in February 2001, the world lost one of the most admired painters of recent years.His childhood had been watched over by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who intuited his genius. His apprenticeship was guided by Claude Monet, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard and Andre Derain, and in maturity he was accompanied by the friendship of Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille,Jacques Lacan, Albert Camus and Andre Malraux. He excelled as a portraitist (notably of his painter colleagues Derain and Joan Miro and as a painter of French landscapes in a tradition that went back to Nicolas Poussin. But above all,Balthus was known for paintings of equivocal figure subjects,very young women in poses or situations that were regarded as enigmatic or suggestive or both.

From the Rue to the Chambre.

A Mythology of the Passage

Jean Clair

Balthus and Rilke: a Childhood

Jean Clair

The Young Balthus

Sabine Rewald

Balthus and Jouve. Previously

Unpublished Documents

Robert Kopp

Balthus at the Aix-en-Provence Festival

Sylvia Colle Lorant

"The Landscape Is Very Chinese

at the Moment..."

The Influence of Chinese Painting

in Balthus's Landscapes

Xing Xiaozhou

Balthus at the Villa Medici (1961-77)

Annick Lemoine

Absolute Balthus

James Lord

Balthus in the Fifties: Paris and Chassy

Raymond Mason

Who He Is

Giorgio Soavi

"Call Me Count or Balthus"

Sandro Manzo

Michelina

Michela Terreri with Slavica Perkovic

and Lewis Baltz

The Funeral of the Count

Klossowski de Rola

Jean Clair

Catalog of Works

Virginie Monnier

The Early Years (1919-29)

Before the War (1932-39)

War and Afterwar (1940-53)

Chassy (1953-61)

Rome (1961-77)

Rossiniere (1977-2001)

Balthus and the Theater

Croquetons

Balthus and His Circle

Appendix

Biography

edited by Virginie Monnier

Monographs

edited by Virginie Monnier

One-Man Exhibitions

edited by Virginie Monnier

Index of Names

Index of Works