Balthus. The Last Studies
Göttingen: Steidl, 2013. Limited to 1500 copies. Hah. Two very large volumes bound in red cloth, housed in a grey cloth box with embossed title. Neither volume is paginated, both contain hundreds of high-quality reproductions of Polaroid color pictures of models and scenes. Very heavy at 25 pounds. Said to be almost 2000 photographs in total. New in custom box. Item #168574
ISBN: 9783869306858
These Polaroids were discovered in the artist's studio after his death. The Last Studies is an undisclosed corpus of nearly two thousand photographs produced during the last ten years of the painter's life. They are the preliminary studies for his last three major paintings. His hands incapacitated by old age, Balthus resorted to the camera as a sort of prosthesis, at once eye, hand, and pencil, thus reassuming the mysterious ritual of sketching, for him the one and only way to approach and define the mental image from which the painting's composition would proceed. As a substitute for drawing, these never-before-seen photographs fully participate in the slow, painstaking practice which had been Balthus' for nearly a century. As such, they give a major insight into the painter's endless quest of beauty. This is the earlier, presumably better edition, not the Thames and Hudson edition of 1000 copies.
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