Pencil on squared paper signed with the monogram lower right "Bs.", 22 x 16 cm.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J.Clair, V.Monnier, "Balthus, catalog raisonné of the complete work", Gallimard, Paris, 1999, n°D755 reproduced in black and white p.271
ORIGIN
Frédérique Tison, Château de Chassy to the current owner by descent
NOTES
Beautiful portrait, with clean lines, of the young 15-year-old model, Frédérique Tison.
It was in the spring of 1953 that Balthus fell in love with the Château de Chassy, a building made up of four towers on the left bank of the Yonne, while he was traveling with his friend the
writer Georges Bataille and his wife. He was looking for a quiet and isolated place to feed his inspiration far from the tumults of Parisian life. He restored part of the castle and settled
there with his partner at the time, the artist Léna Leclercq. It is a period of great creative activity. His painting evolves in the manner of the painters of the Italian Renaissance. Some time
later, the daughter of the wife of his brother Pierre Klossowski, Frédérique Tison, aged 14, became his muse and his companion during the seven years he spent at the castle. She posed for most
of her portraits of a young girl with a mirror and a cat, in timeless interiors. Frédérique Tison accompanied Balthus to Rome when the latter was appointed director of the Villa Medici by André
Malraux in 1961. When they finally broke up in 1966, he gave her Chassy where she settled.
- Height : 22 cm
- Width : 16 cm