More than 200 works gathered in the 36 halls in Palazzo Grassi, cared by Jean Clair, manager of the Picasso Museum in Paris, with the sober settings by Gae Aulenti.

Displayed in chronological order, the works of the painter departed last February retrace his artistic path from 1921 to 2001.

A cosmopolitan aristocrat of Polish origin, Balthus entered legend while still alive; classic in technique and modern in contents, he turned his back to all avant-gardes.

He marked XX century artistic and intellectual history, was friends with Alberto Giacometti and Gianni Agnelli, a great collector of his works.

Balthus’ mother was a lover of Rilke, and there are still letters the great writer sent to the young painter at the time.

He soon starts drawing imitating the masters of the 1400's that he loved. Some copied works from paintings of Piero della Francesca and Masaccio are exhibited and they clearly show the remarkable technical ease Balthus had acquired.

Entering Palazzo Grassi the famous painting "Le passage de la Rue du Commerce Saint-André" (1952-54) starts the visitor to the sometimes disquieting weirdness of the Balthusian Universe.

Among portraits "Joan Miro' et sa fille Dolores", and especially a self-portrait called "Le roi des chats" which shows the great love for felines of he who named himself "the king of cats".

In the path, also a must were the renowned works depicting scenes and figures of naked and dreamy adolescents whose erotic air had often caused scandal, like "La chambre" (1947-48), a turbid work which hadn’t been shown to the public for 30 years.

It is not by chance that the most visited hall is the one gathering "La toilette de Cathy" and "La leçon de guitare", stirring works that were also judged offensive. To the continued accusations of immorality Balthus invariably replied "but  can’t you see they are angels? ".

A very interesting film on the painter also awaits the visitor and sheds some light on the artist's complex personality and on his relationship with various personalities of his century.

Always hovering between dream and reality, infancy and maturity, Balthus incurable melancholic mumbled sighing " my painting speaks of a disappeared world of harmony".

Running until 6th of January 2002

October.2001