Balthus-Girl at a Window

Finally, the French artist Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski) who lived from 1908-2001 created a piece that didn't have unnecessary sexual undertones written all over it. The piece titled "Girl at a Window" was created in 1957 with oil on a canvas and comes from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection (1998) and is currently being held at the exhibition of Balthus titled "Cats and Girls" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Standing at 160 by 162 centimeters, this painting features a young girl looking out a window over a beautiful backdrop with hills, a big tree, and what appears to me as a tall wall with a gate leading out of the estate that the house is in. While you cannot see the young girls face, for some reason I get the emotional response that she yearns to break free of her current surroundings and view the world outside of the estate that she is looking over. As we talked about in class with Sarah Schmerler you can view art with the idea of it as either a window or a surface. While this is of course a literal window, one still must view the piece as though we are there looking both in front of that windowsill at the scene with the young girl and beyond at the scene that she is looking at herself to place ourselves within the dynamic of the story that is being told through painted documentation. Part of me also wonders exactly why the artist chose not to show the girl's face in this picture while in the others that were set up much more provocatively he had no problem doing so. Something else to think about I suppose.

 Girl at a Window-Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski)