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| Balthus The Street 1933 oil on canvas Museum of Modern Art, New York |
Distorted Tradition
Not only does Balthus paint traditionally, but often replicates well-known prototypes. What he offers are variations, revisions. The scene here is an actual Parisian passageway giving onto the Carrefour de l'Odéon; it is called the Cour du Commerce Saint-André and opens on another, the Cour de Rohan. Formerly open to the public, the latter is now closed off. It houses a Louis XIII building in which Balthus had his studio.
In this meeting place, the shared street, people pass without seeing one another. At center, dressed in white, a man carries a plank that hides his face – distant memory of the Carrying of the Cross. Around him circulate various actors of various ages, but all fairly young, notably a young woman seen from the back wearing a black hat decorated with a red cross. Her right hand is extended in a somewhat affected manner. Such half-intentional awkwardness sharpens the impact of these characters. The young woman passes a boy who stares toward the viewer but seems to see nothing: wide-eyed, hand over heart, he is, one guesses, gazing inward. Behind the main group, another young woman is seen from the back, wearing an apron that most likely marks her as a housemaid. The child held in the crook of her arm resembles a marionette. His proportions are not those of a normal child. He wears a sailor hat.
Uneasiness
On the other side of the picture, a little girl with a dwarfishly large head – the reverse of the child-marionette – leaning forward, holds a toy (seemingly a racquet, but with no sign of netting within the hoop), using it to bounce a red ball. At far left, a girl about the same age as the unseeing boy is seized from behind by another boy, slightly older, who holds her left arm and with his right hand begins to lift her skirt. He is positioned to face the viewer, but with eyes closed; immersed in his erotic endeavor, he yet seems uneasy – which is generally characteristic of sexuality as Balthus represents it. His is an anxious eroticism. Figures tend to be immobilized, suspended, waiting for action that will never occur.
Posing
Behind these figures, a slender adolescent in a grey overall and shirtsleeves stands straight as a ninepin; on his head a white toque identifies him as a baker's boy. Immobile, hands in pockets, he emphasizes the surrounding activity.
Uneasiness
On the other side of the picture, a little girl with a dwarfishly large head – the reverse of the child-marionette – leaning forward, holds a toy (seemingly a racquet, but with no sign of netting within the hoop), using it to bounce a red ball. At far left, a girl about the same age as the unseeing boy is seized from behind by another boy, slightly older, who holds her left arm and with his right hand begins to lift her skirt. He is positioned to face the viewer, but with eyes closed; immersed in his erotic endeavor, he yet seems uneasy – which is generally characteristic of sexuality as Balthus represents it. His is an anxious eroticism. Figures tend to be immobilized, suspended, waiting for action that will never occur.
Posing
Behind these figures, a slender adolescent in a grey overall and shirtsleeves stands straight as a ninepin; on his head a white toque identifies him as a baker's boy. Immobile, hands in pockets, he emphasizes the surrounding activity.
He poses. The picture as a whole evokes what in former times was known as a tableau vivant. Each figure is set in place and forbidden to stir, frequently holding positions of arrested action, rather than stillness. This is not a snapshot, but a frozen composition. In painting academies, models were required sometimes to mimic repose, sometimes movement: chasing, fleeing, fighting. They might remain half-standing or extended in a stretch for hours, in considerable discomfort.* All students at the École des Beaux-Arts necessarily worked within this timeless suspension. Balthus has us dwelling inside Sleeping Beauty's Palace, but we sleep with eyes open. The shutter catches us in the midst of these slumbers.
– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)
*Butor gives no corroboration for this statement, and there is ample documentation to contradict it. The use of live models in art academies was generally governed by written rules and traditions which limited the amount of time individual poses were held (most commonly about half an hour), mandated the provision of supports for extended limbs (usually ropes or poles), regulated students' conduct toward the model, and even specified an adequately warm studio temperature.