Balthus, Painter

Balthus (Balthazar Klossowski) was born on February 29, 1908 in Paris France and died on February 18, 2001 in La Rossinière, Switzerland. He was a reclusive French painter who, in the midst of 20th-century avant-gardism, explored the traditional categories of European painting: the landscape, the still life, the subject painting, and the portrait. He is best known for his controversial depictions of adolescent girls.