The Mountain by Balthus was created in 1937. The painting is in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The size of the work is 248,9 x 365,8 cm and is made as an oil on canvas.
Painting in his austere Paris studio, Balthus imagined and depicted in this monumental canvas an escape from the congested city to the open landscape of Niederhorn Mountain, near Beatenberg, Switzerland. A hiking party of seven explores the mountainous terrain together, yet the figures are strangely isolated from one another, a persistent characteristic of Balthus’s work. The figure’s disparate poses and activities heighten their detachment and enhance the scale and remoteness of the landscape. Invoking life in summer, The Mountain is one in an abandoned series of four canvases meant to symbolize the seasons. Read more in Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About the Artist: Polish-French modern artist Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski de Rola) was born in Paris. In 1926 Balthus visited Florence, where he copied many frescos by the Renaissance master Piero della Francesca. From 1930 to 1931 Balthus served in the French army in Morocco. In 1933 he moved to Paris, taking a studio in the Rue de Furstemberg. Later he would move to another studio at the nearby Cour de Rohan. Read more
