Solitaire

Modern Art

1943

Balthus (Baltusz Klossowski de Rola)
French, 1908–2001

Balthus was born into an educated and artistic, but impoverished, family of Polish aristocrats who had fled political and economic turmoil to settle in Paris. As a young man, he traveled to Italy to study such Old Masters as Piero della Francesca. Aside from this direct experience, Balthus received little formal schooling; this permitted him to develop his own unique artistic vision. In 1933 he began painting the erotically charged images for which he is best known—enigmatic scenes of young girls lost in reverie that often place the viewer in the position of voyeur.

Balthus spent most of World War II in Switzerland, where in 1943 he painted Solitaire. The striking posture of the girl, deep in thought as she considers the cards on the table, is one the artist used in a number of earlier works. The insistent verticals of the patterned wallpaper create a counterpoint to the diagonal of the girl’s back; the mysterious expression of her shadowed face contrasts with the strong, raking light that defines her delicate, long fingers. These details suggest how carefully Balthus orchestrated the painting’s unsettling emotional tenor.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Balthus
Title: Solitaire
Place: France (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1943
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, l.l.: "Balthus 1943"
Dimensions: 161.3 × 163.5 cm (63 1/2 × 64 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Joseph Winterbotham Collection
Reference Number: 1964.177
Copyright: © Balthus

Hoffman, Edith. “Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions, New York,” Burlington Magazine, v. 99 (February 1957), p. 68.
Gray, Cleve. “The Art In America Show,” Art in America, v. 49 (1962), no. 4, p. 97, 1961 (ill.), p. 97.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago 1961), p. 1979.
Connoisseur, v. 149 (March 1962), p. CXIII.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report, 1963–1964, pp. 21–22 (ill.).
Russell, John. “Master of the Nubile Adolescent,” Art in America, v. 55 (November–December 1967), pp. 98–103, (ill.) p. 100.
Roberts, Keith. “Current and Forthcoming Exhibition, London,” Burlington Magazine, v. 110 (November 1968), fig. 60, (ill.) p. 644, p. 645.
Leymarie, Jean. Balthus (New York: 1979), p. 131.
Klossowski de Rola, Stanislas, Balthus (London: Thames and Hudson 1983), p. 96, cat. 31, (ill.) p. 31.
Centre Georges Pompidou, Balthus (Paris, 1983), pp. 59, 69, 160–61, 290 (ill.) p. 351.
Clair, Jean. “Eros et Cronos, Le rite et le mythe dans l’oeuvre de Balthus,” Revue del’Art, no. 63 (1984), p. 89.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Balthus (New York:1984), p. 108–109 (ill.) p. 75
Monnier, Virginie. Balthus: catalogue raissoné de l’oeuvre, (Paris, 1999), no. P140, pp. 142 (ill.), 575.
Stephanie D’Alessandro and Renée DeVoe Mertz, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), 10, 131 (color ill.).
Evelyn Benesch, Cécile Debray, and Andreas Beyer, Balthus: Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, exh. cat. (Electa, 2015), pp. front-back covers (color ill.); pp. 61-62 (color ill. as La Patience).

Geneva, Galerie Georges Moos, Exposition Balthus, Nov. 1943, cat. 11.
Paris, Galerie Beaux-Arts, Balthus, peintures de 1936 a 14, Nov.r 25, 1946–Dec. 10, 1946, cat. 17.
New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Balthus, 1949, cat. 20.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Balthus, Dec. 19, 1956–Feb. 3, 1957, cat. 15.
Chicago, Arts Club, Balthus, Sept. 21–Oct. 28, 1961, no. 12.
New York, Decorative Arts Center, The Art in America Show, Dec. 7-22, 1961.
New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Balthus: Paintings 1929–1961, Mar. 1962, cat. 6.
Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The New Gallery, Hayden Library, Balthus, Feb. 10, 1964–Mar. 1964, cat. 12.
Minneapolis, Institute of Arts, 50th Anniversary Exhibition, 1915–1965, Nov. 4, 1965–Jan. 2, 1966.
London, Tate Gallery, Oct. 4–Nov. 10, 1968, cat. 20.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Balthus in Chicago, Aug. 1–Nov. 9, 1980, cat. 3.
Paris, Centre George Pompidou, Balthus, Nov. 5, 1983–Jan. 23, 1984, cat. 28; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Feb. 21–May 13, 1984, cat. 27.
Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Balthus: Time Suspended, Aug. 17–Nov. 4, 2007.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.
Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, Balthus: Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, Oct. 24–Jan. 31, 2016, no cat. no.; Kunstforum Wien, Feb. 24–June 19, 2016.

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, acquired from the artist, 1948. Purchased by the Art Institute, 1964.

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