Cathy’s toilette

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

The unusually large, almost monumental canvas, close to a square format, represents a double portrait, except for a secondary character – a maid, combing the hair of a naked girl. The artist had a long relationship with Antoinette de Watteville, a Berne aristocrat. The face of his future wife (she is also Katie from “Wuthering Heights” by E. Bronte, to which Balthus created illustrations) is a real portrait. It is stylized, but undoubtedly recognizable. The man’s expectation (self-portrait) looks strange in some mysterious atmosphere due to the asceticism of colour solutions. This approach to choosing a “banal” palette is a unique technique, with the help of which the master keeps the viewer’s eyes on the pale, almost white figure of a woman. The expectancy of the man (self-portrait) looks strange in some mysterious atmosphere due to the asceticism of colour solutions. This method of choosing a “banal” palette is a special technique, with the help of which the master keeps the viewer’s eyes on the pale, almost white figure of the woman.