Balthus
*In the Living Room*, 1942

The painting feels like a hypnotic dream. One girl sprawls across the sofa while another stands frozen over a book; together, their awkward, angular poses capture the unsettled years of adolescence.

The provocative poses caused a stir. Some viewers were disturbed by their veiled eroticism, while Picasso and Camus, for instance, saw profound psychological insight. Balthus rejected any suggestion of indecency: “I ask you to look at my paintings as pure painting. Don’t search for ambiguity in them; there is none. My figures are simply angels in an interior.”

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