Lelia Caetani

Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski)

1935 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

By 1935, when Marguerite Caetani, Princess Bassiano, commissioned this portrait of her daughter Lelia, Balthus had grown tired and resentful of the painting commissions that were his only source of income. Depicted in the elegant Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Lelia is unfashionably dressed and appears considerately older than her twenty-two years. Her limbs are elongated and she dwarfs her surroundings, awkwardly towering over the trees and lamppost. Balthus later called his stylized, unflattering, and even bizarre portraits his "monsters."

Artist

Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski)

Date

1935

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, 2011