BALTHUS (1908- 2001)
Der Niederhorn (1,963m - 6,640ft)
Switzerland
In The mountain, Suisse 1936-1937, oil on canvas, The MET
The mountain
The Niederhorn (1,963m - 6,640ft) is a peak of the Emmental Alps in the Bernese Oberland near Beatenberg. It is the peak farthest west in the Güggis ridge. From its summit one can see Lake Thun and the entire Bernese Alps. An aerial cable car to the summit was completed in 1946 with a restaurant and children's playground at the top. Today the summit can be reached by the Seilbahnen Beatenberg-Niederhorn, a more modern gondola lift that runs from the village of Beatenberg, where it connects with the Thunersee–Beatenberg Bahn, a funicular with connections to the shipping services on Lake Thun.
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The painter
Balthusz Klossowski de Rola, known as Balthus, was born 29 February 1908 in Paris. He is the second son of painter and art historian, Erich Klossowski (1875-1946), and Elizabeth Dorothea Spiro (1886-1969), called Baladine. His older brother is the writer and artist Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001). Involved in the artistic circles of Montparnasse at the beginning of the century, Erich and Dorothea associated with Pierre Bonnard, Julius Meier-Graefe, Wilhelm Uhde, and Rainer Maria Rilke.Throughout his career, Balthus rejected the usual conventions of the art world. He insisted that his paintings should be seen and not read about, and he resisted any attempts made to build a biographical profile. A telegram sent to the Tate Gallery as it prepared for its 1968 retrospective of his works read: "NO BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. BEGIN: BALTHUS IS A PAINTER OF WHOM NOTHING IS KNOWN. NOW LET US LOOK AT THE PICTURES. REGARDS. B."
Source:
- Fonds Balthus
The MET notice about the painting
Painting in his austere Paris studio, Balthus imagined and depicted in this monumental canvas an escape from the congested city to the open landscape of Niederhorn Mountain, near Beatenberg, Switzerland. A hiking party of seven explores the mountainous terrain together, yet the figures are strangely isolated from one another, a persistent characteristic of Balthus’s work. The figure’s disparate poses and activities—walking, stretching, kneeling, and sleeping—heighten their detachment and enhance the scale and remoteness of the landscape. Invoking life in summer, The Mountain is one in an abandoned series of four canvases meant to symbolize the seasons.
Source:
The MET, New York
