Balthus (1908-2001)

La Séance de pose depicts a young girl posing languidly for the 'modeling session' that gives the drawing its title. With one leg raised and bent provocatively at the knee, this is a subject that Balthus explored in a series of twelve drawings executed in Rome in 1975, where he was Director of the Villa Medici from 1961 to 1977 (cf. Clair & Monnier nos. D1344-1355). The artist's presence within the composition relates the drawing to the oil Le peintre et son modèle (ibid. P34; Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris); however in contrast to the oil, in which the artist turns away from his model, in the present work he depicts himself leaning over the table in intense study of his model.