The Question of Decency in the Works of Gustave Courbet and ...

Emily Barney

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The Question of Decency in the Works of Gustave Courbet and ...

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• Publié par: asoviraj
• Nombre de lectures: 177
• Langue: English

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Flesh: The Question of Decency in the Works of Gustave Courbet and Balthus           Emily Barney April 22, 2009

 There is no question that Balthus had a special affinity for Gustave Courbet. He frequently praised Courbet’s works and found inspiration in them. Scholars have made their own associations between the two artists. Some of the compositions in Balthus’s paintings seem to be directly lifted from works by Courbet. What was it about Courbet that inspired Balthus? The two men’s dispositions were quite different from each other. But the burgeoning sexual climate in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century which Courbet was very much a part of (preceded by the writings of the Marquis de Sade), paved the way for interest in the works of Sade in the early twentieth century by many artists and writers, including Balthus. Both men disavowed the presence of such indecencies in their works, but it is undeniable that they were a part of these climates, and it is impossible to conclude that Sade’s ideas did not inform their work.  Balthazar Klossowski was born in Paris in 1908. He retained his childhood nickname, Balthus, for most of his life. Balthus considered himself to be a self-taught painter. He spent part of 1924 and 1925 copying paintings by the masters in the Louvre. This short time in the Louvre does not completely account for his vast knowledge of art history, though. Balthus’s parents, Erich and Baladine Klossowski, were artists and art historians. It was not rare for artists such as Henri Matisse and André Derain to have dinner at their home. The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (who became Baladine’s lover in the early 1920s) took a special interest in Balthus. Rilke even published a little book of drawings by Balthus called Mitsou with an introduction by Rilke. The book was about a boy who loses his cat, and was published when Balthus was only 13 years old. Cats remained a motif throughout much of Balthus’s career.

 

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