Balthus Remembered

A special memorial installation of seven paintings by Balthus (1908–2001)—one of which, Pierre Matisse (1938), is on public view for the first time—is being displayed in the Robert Lehman Wing. The Museum's tribute also features Summertime (1935), The Mountain (1937), Thérèse Awake (1938), Thérèse Dreaming (1938), Nude before a Mirror (1955), and Girl at a Window (1957), all drawn from the collection of the Metropolitan. Pierre Matisse is from a private collection.

Balthus, who died on February 18, was the last surviving master of the School of Paris—the famed group of artists who lived and worked in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century, pioneering new and innovative forms of expression. Best known for his psychologically probing portraits and his depictions of adolescent girls, Balthus was also a painter of Parisian street scenes and luminous landscapes.