Balthus

Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne
Thomas Ammann Gallery, Inc., Zurich
Odyssia Gallery, New York
B.C. Holland, Inc., Chicago
James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica
Thomas Ammann Gallery, Inc., Zurich
Dr. & Mrs. Robert Nowinski, Seattle
Stephen Mazoh & Co., New York
Ivor Braka, Ltd., London
Max Kohler, Zurich
Private Collection, Paris
Acquired in 2007

Spoleto, Palazzo Racani-Arroni, Festival dei Due Mondi, Balthus: disegni e acquarelli, 1982, no. 113 (titled Jeune fille à genoux)
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Drawings 1974-1984, 1984, no. 14, illustrated in the catalogue
Roslyn Harbor, Nassau County Museum of Art; Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 20th Century Master Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture from the Nowinski Collection, 1993, illustrated in the catalogue
London, The Lefevre Gallery, Works on Paper by Balthus, 1996, no. 16 (titled Jeune fille agenouillée)
Venice, Palazzo Grassi, Balthus, 2001-02, no. 148, illustrated in the catalogue

Jean Pierre Faye, Balthus, Les dessins, Paris, 1998, p. 32
Virginie Monnier & Jean Clair, Balthus, Catalogue Raisonné of the Complete Works, Paris, 1999, no. D1374, illustrated p. 378
Jean Clair, ed., Balthus, New York, 2001, no. 148, illustrated in color p. 423

This work is in excellent condition. Executed on cream wove paper. The sheet is deckled along the top right edge and very slightly time-darkened. The sheet is a little dirty at a couple places along the extreme outer edges. There is a slight .5-inch tear along the bottom left edge. Otherwise fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Of all the subjects Balthus explored over the course of his career, he is most celebrated for his images of adolescent girls. Pensive, remote, and lost in daydreams, Balthus' girls are often static within a severe pictorial order. The awkward poses of these young subjects suggest the sexual ambiguities of puberty, imbuing these pictures with a sense of vulnerability while their rigid compositional unity resists sentimentality. In the present work, Etude pour "Le Peintre et son modèle," a young girl kneels, resting her elbows on the seat of a chair. Her repose is balanced by another chair symmetrically opposite from the one she leans on, confining the tenderness of her blooming femininity within the architectural rigor of her surroundings. 

This work is the study for a larger painting titled Le Peintre et son modèle (Fig. 1), which currently belongs to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Balthus often created numerous sketches before beginning on a painting, and always insisted on drawing from live models. His career as a draughtsman had started very early: at age eleven, Balthus created a series of drawings for a book about his cat (his mentor, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, wrote the preface), and ten years later he gained attention in Paris for his series of pen-and-ink illustrations for Wuthering Heights. The lines of Étude pour "Le Peintre et son modèle," simultaneously hazy and precise, highlight Balthus's graphic mastery. The infinite delicacy of his touch led the art historian John Richardson to describe Balthus's drawings as "[having] been breathed – whispered – onto the paper" (John Richardson, Balthus (exhibition catalogue), New York, 2000, p. 4).

Fig. 1  Balthus, Le Peintre et son modèle, 1980-81, casein tempera on canvas, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris