Balthus devoted his whole life in figure painting and was committed to restoring the realistic style of figure’s body, and gave them the conciseness and everlasting feeling. The theme that Balthus liked was the adolescent boys and girls, portraying them reading, sleeping or meditating in the sitting room under the evening light.
In such situation, they seemed to do nothing. Starting from 50s of the last century, Balthus’s indoor paintings were gradually bright. In the painting of The Room, the curtain was pushed to the side of the wall and the light reached a naked girl stretching her waist through the glass window. Balthus was a magician who described the light and was good at creating an atmosphere with different lights, letting the spectators along the light into the attractive room. He described the girl always in stillness and movement, with the sleeping and waking state and putting a special position. Some stretched their arms and legs and some thoughts thronged one's mind in a floating state. The girl’s expressions in his later works were relaxed, cheerful and bright, which completely changed the past deep and serious images as if thinking of something. As the Holland painter Vermeer, Balthus opened the door into the female’s inner world for us.
The Room 1948
Balthus was known as “the last emperior” of the realistic painting in the west, who brought the art of Paris School and essence of humanities to today and creatively continued the Renaissance spirit and realistic painting style in his own dream. The Room was the most famous work of Balthus. This painting depicted the scene likely from a nightmare: the voluptuous nude, sneaky gnome and unexpected sunshine seemed to feel the pain and overlapping pleasure. And the peering cat in the darkness was so mysterious, which was the embodiment of the omnipresent secret. The work was beyond the meaning and color, light and movement and all the painting appraisal factors reminded the viewer’s slightly cruel speechless feeling.
