Abstract

Balthus' admirers often maintain that the artistic quality of his works originates not only from his association with the iconographies of Western classical paintings but also from his depiction of human figures in the old masters' style. This paper, however, tries somewhat conversely to put forward as a hypothesis that their uniqueness lies rather in their lack of naturalism. Through the stylistic analysis of La Montagne, one of his actual works as a material, it will be shown here that his anatomically inaccurate treatment of human figures and his trick of making up for this have actually made his artistic characteristics. As it can be easily seen from this large-sized work, many formal problems arise when Balthus composes human figures: improbable centre line of the body of the half sitting man, unnatural connection at the invisible neck of the standing woman, the wrong position, on the ground, of the legs of the sleeping woman, and totally, the unnaturalness of all standing figures. Characteristically, these deficiencies are concealed by various techniques such as the strict formation of the picture plane, the accurate arrangement of colours, and the magnificent depiction of a landscape as well as the topographical revisions and the handling of the light source. La Montagne can be accordingly considered as a suitable guide to study how his figures relate to landscape, and what influence the painter's technical poverty brings to his works