Alice (Alice in the mirror)

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The Georges Pompidou Center, Paris (France).

The controversial “Alice” was created with Betty Holland, who later became a wife of his friend P. Leiris. Balthus achieved a striking portrait resemblance. A charming, innocent face contrasts with a curved body in one transparent tunic: massive chest, skinny waist, and childishly straight thick legs with small feet in ballet shoes. All this reminded the public of the existing pornographic stereotype. There were not only naturalistically depicted anatomical details, but also “faded” eyes of the model seeming to be blind. The image from the book of L. Carroll haunted the artist as if possessing “exceptional spell power”. Poet Pierre Jean Jouve, who bought the canvas, obsessively felt that Alice wanted to make love to him, and got rid of the picture that had hung in his room for 20 years, giving it to his friend.