Nicholas Fox Weber adopts an interesting biographical technique for his hefty book on Balthus. He does not offer straight, researched reconstructions of the events, social circles, and physical environments of the painter’s life. Nor does he try to evoke for us a linear narrative of his subject’s developing character, domestic circumstances, or spiritual progress. Rather what we get is, so to speak, a report on “How I Wrote a Book about Balthus.” We hear about Weber’s early admiration for and first approaches to the painter, about his subsequent meetings and interviews, about his stays as a houseguest at the artist’s chalet in the Alps, about his encounters with Balthus’s surviving friends and with those who modelled for figure compositions or sat for portraits. We have accounts of Weber’s trips to see certain Balthus paintings in public collections around the world or in the mansions and penthouses of tycoons....

 

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