It would be hard to make a case for Balthus, who died last week at his chalet in Switzerland at the august age of 92, as one of the great artists of the 20th century. He knew many of them and swam in the same water as they did, but he was not a giant fish like Picasso, Matisse or even his friend from early days in Paris, Joan Miro. Nevertheless he was a good artist, very good at times, though his later work fell far short of his best, most of which was done in the 1930s-50s. And he was,...
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