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Thérèse Dreaming

1938
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 955
Balthus’s model, Thérèse Blanchard, appears—as the title of this work suggests—unaware of her surroundings and lost in thought. Blanchard was about twelve or thirteen when the artist painted this canvas. She would figure in at least nine other compositions, either alone or with her cat or her brother. Balthus, like countless modern artists, believed the subject of the child to be a source of raw spirit, not yet molded by societal expectations. Many early twentieth‑century avant‑garde artists, from Paul Gauguin to Edvard Munch to Pablo Picasso, also viewed adolescent sexuality as a potent site of psychological vulnerability as well as lack of inhibition, and they projected these subjective interpretations into their work. While it may be unsettling to our eyes today, Thérèse Dreaming draws on this history.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Thérèse Dreaming
  • Artist: Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski) (French, Paris 1908–2001 Rossinière)
  • Date: 1938
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 59 × 51 in. (149.9 × 129.5 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998
  • Object Number: 1999.363.2
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

Audio

Cover Image for 1910. Thérèse Dreaming

1910. Thérèse Dreaming

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