BALTHUS | Étude pour "Le Rêve I"

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (acquired from the artist)
Sale: Christie's, London, June 29, 1981, lot 61
Private Collection, New York
Acquired from the above on January 9, 1985

New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Balthus, 1957, no. 14
New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Balthus, Paintings 1929-1961, 1962, no. 9
Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The New Gallery, Balthus, 1964, no. 17

Jean Leymarie, Balthus, New York, 1982, p. 135
Balthus Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1983, no. 162, illustrated p. 366
Jean Leymarie, Balthus, Geneva, 1990, p. 137
Virginie Monnier & Jean Clair, Balthus: Catalogue Raisonné of the Complete Works, Paris, 1999, no. P.239, illustrated p. 168
Jean Clair, ed., Balthus, London, 2001, no. 2, illustrated p. 334

The work is in excellent condition. The canvas is not lined. There is a richly textured pattern to the surface, particularly to the two figures. Under UV light, there are small strokes of inpainting in the figure at right's proper right wrist, and also in her left hand and just below her left hand.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Étude pour "Le Rêve I" was painted in 1954, just one year after Balthus moved to the grandiose yet austere Château de Chassy in the Morvan region of France with his wife Antoinette de Watteville and their step-niece Frédérique Tison. The artist was extremely responsive to his new home which inspired some of Balthus’ most poetic paintings. Dating from the fourteenth century and remodelled in the seventeenth, the château provided the perfect studio for the reclusive artist. In large part due to his contentment with his physical surroundings, Balthus was finally able to commence the ambitious series to which the present work belongs, addressing a number of themes which preoccupied him throughout his career including the nature of public observation, the privacy of the domestic space and the psychology of dreams. As noted by the French art historian and Balthus scholar Jean Leymarie, “During his Chassy period…he worked with unflagging energy, as intent as ever on a slowly achieved, highly wrought perfection” (Jean Leymarie, Balthus, Geneva, 1982, p. 65). The present work is one of several compositions devoted to the theme of the dream. Featuring one of the artist’s archetypal passive adolescents slumbering or daydreaming, who may have been modeled by Frédérique Tison, the two subjects of Étude pour "Le Rêve I" suggest both fortitude and vulnerability. While the languorous girls in a petit-bourgeois interior are presented as actors on stage, they are completely enveloped in their own world and unaware they are being observed. Slung over the sofa, the lack of tension of the reclining figure suggests deep sleep and the universal language of serenity. Jean Clair explains the ingenuity of the Le Rêve series in the context of the artist’s practice and overall treatment of the theme: “Balthus often drew or painted young girls asleep, saying they were ‘dreamers;’ but for the first time he represents in these paintings at once the sleeper and the object of her dream… he places the conjured-up figure amidst the reassuring, familiar context of everyday reality” (Balthus (exhibition catalogue), Venice, 2001, p. 334).