The Decline of Therese

Balthasar Klossowski, later called Balthus, is a Polish-French modern artist whose work has been greatly criticized as being alluring and disturbing especially those featuring adolescents. Such criticism later made Balthus feel defensive and detached. He always preferred that people look at his art rather than to speak or write about it. He always refused to acknowledge the imposition of eroticism in his work and said that the impure thoughts and emotions that arise when viewing his paintings come from the viewer themselves. Balthus is known to enjoy shaking up his viewers conscience.

Therese Blanchard is a young girl who Balthus would paint at least 10 portraits of, more than any of his other models. Balthus met her in Paris when she was eleven. They shared a neighborhood and perhaps ran into each other in the street or in a shop. At this time Balthus was painting commissioned portraits which he hated doing but had to for money. Since Balthus has always felt a great deal of kinship with children, he was drawn to Therese’s innocent youth. Balthus usually paints her alone in portraits or genre paintings sometimes featuring her brother. This exhibit includes painting of Therese only in order of which they were painted. As the paintings progress Therese ages as well as the somber tone in which Balthus paints her. He creates intimacy between the viewer and the Therese through perspective, colors, and composition.

Balthus, Therese, 1936, Oil on Canvas, 23 ⅝ x 19 5/16 in.,  Private Collection

This is Balthus’s first portrait of Therese. She would not be described as conventionally pretty and yet Balthus was still drawn to her simplicity and youth. She is somberly and plainly dressed in a black top with simple red piping in the collar. The focus is on Therese’s face, painted in a light neutral tone, as she looks away introspectively with a serious look that matches her dark clothing. Balthus captures her young dignity in the details in her face which draw the viewer in to reflect, The perspective of Therese is from a lower angle rather than straight on elevating her and giving her importance. Her dark hair and dress push her off the neutral brown background to keep the focus on her.

Balthus, Therese with Cat, 1937, Oil on Cardboard, 34 ½ x 30 ½ in.,  The Art Institute of Chicago, Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection (1991.595)

Here we have a genre painting of Therese a year later. Here we have her lounging on a bench with a cat on the floor. With one knee sock down by her ankle and her arms raised up and her hands meeting at the back of her head it looks as if Therese may have just been playing outside. The perspective is low and perhaps more on level with the cat showing Therese entirely. The background is dark, darker than the last portrait, allowing for Therese’s light neutral skin and bright pinks and greens in her clothing along with the bench to create tenebrism and push her into focus. Therese holds a nonchalant posture on the bench with her underwear exposed without her being properly aware. She has a poker face that refuses to look directly at the viewer and rather at something off to the right, perhaps knowing she is being observed. And yet the intimacy is still present as the viewer further reflects on Therese alone and exposed in a room with a cat.

Balthus, Therese Dreaming, 1938, Oil on Canvas, 59 x 51 in, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1999.363.2)

Therese Dreaming was painted the following year and is a genre painting very much like the last one. The painting gives us a glimpse into a room covered in dark striped wallpaper, occupied by Therese lounging on the same wooden bench with a now white cat drinking from a bowl of milk on the floor at her feet. Therese stretches her arms above her head. Her eyes are closed with her face in profile perhaps day dreaming. The cats eyes are closed matching Therese’s expression creating a tone of intimacy. One of her legs rests on the wooden bench with her other one the floor in such a way that again exposes her underwear. The perspective is higher now putting Therese center right. Therese’s skirt is now red rather than green making her white slip and underwear more alluring. But if Therese is dreaming, should we even be looking at her underwear when she is so unaware?

 

Balthus, Therese, Oil on Cardboard, 21 11/16 x 18 3/16 in.,  Private Collection

Here is a portrait of Therese done in the same year as the last painting. With a glum look on her face Therese’s dark eyes gaze out at the viewer for the first time. Her face seems to have matured a bit and she appears impatient and annoyed as she looks out. Her face now has a grey tone mixed in with the light neutral from before making her appear more gloomy. Her yellow off the shoulder shirt draws us in to her young innocence is done in brisk brush strokes. Why does a child so young looks so glum? The perspective is closer than the portrait seen earlier, drawing us into intimacy with a glum Therese.

Balthus, Therese on a Bench Seat, 1939, Oil on Canvas, 27 ⅞ x 36 in., Dorothy R. and Richard E. Sherwood Family Collection

Here, Therese is seen in a genre painting emphasizing her slender now fourteen year old body. With her legs in the same position as before, Therese leans back balancing with one hand on the ground and her other raised diagonally above toward her knee holding a string. This posture is less provocative than it has been before on this bench as our perspective has changed to a side view rather than head on looking at her underwear. Therese looks detached with a reserved temperament even in this playful position as her body is actively reclining. Her white knee socks and collar emphasize her innocent school girl look. This is the last known painting of Therese. The last piece in this exhibit is suggested to be Therese.

Balthus, The Victim, 1939-46, Oil on Canvas, 52 x 85 ⅞ in. Private Collection

The Victim is a dark rendition of the well-known reclining female nude. This dark scene was finished when Balthus returned to Paris after being called to serve in the military. A female body, painted in similar gray-neutral tones seen in the portrait of 1938, stretches across the canvas on a white sheet that was thrown over a bed, the folds evoking a sense of still-life painting. Below her head on the ground lies a knife pointed directly at her heart. Balthus leaves the viewer wondering if she is in a trance or dead. The short brown hair and oval shape of the victim’s face match the shape of Therese’s face already depicted by Balthus numerous times. Therese had never posed in the nude but has been seen painted in a reclining position like the painting before. Perhaps Balthus painted The Victim using Therese’s features onto an imagined version of her. Perhaps she is a victim of the perversion that has been imposed on her by critics and viewers of previous paintings depicting her.