The best way to begin is to say: Balthus is a painter of whom nothing is known. And now let us have a look at his paintings.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The artist is an interpreter of Nature. People learn to love Nature through pictures. To the artist, nothing is in vain; nothing beneath his notice. If he is great enough, he will exalt every subject which he treats.
Every good painter paints what he is.
The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.
I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason.
No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.
Nature engenders the science of painting.
Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.
There does not exist a painter who knows himself or knows what he is doing.
The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.
Pollock said several times that he couldn't separate himself from his art. Not knowing much about modern art when I began to read about him, I was much more his persona - his struggles as a human being - that was interesting to me.