BALTHUS, [BALTHASAR KLOSSOWSKI]. 1908-2001.


RILKE, RAINER MARIA. 1875-1926. Mitsou. Quarante Images par Baltusz. Erlenbach - Zurich and Leipzig: Rotapfel-Verlag, 1921. 4to (245 x 190 mm). 40 lithographs by Balthus. Original boards, with publisher's printed French wrappers, minor chipping at spine. Provenance: John Russell (1919-2008, inscription dated 1973).FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BOOK ILLUSTRATED BY BALTHUS, CRITIC JOHN RUSSELL'S COPY. Published when he was only 13 years old, and the drawings executed when he was 11, Mitsou tells the story of a cat and a boy, lost and then reunited. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the lover of Balthus's mother, was so struck by the inventiveness of the young artist's drawings that he arranged for the publication in French, and provided the preface. Rilke would write a series of letters to the young Balthus, published in 1945 as "Lettres a un jeune peintre" in the journal Fontaine (No 44, 6 annee, Summer 1945). From the preface: "Trouver une chose, c'est toujours amusant ; un moment avant elle n'y était pas encore. Mais trouver un chat, c'est inouï!" (in English: "Finding a thing is always fun; just a moment before there was nothing. But finding a cat is incredible!") In Mitsou, we see the beginnings of the man who would become one of the great artists of the 20th-century, sometimes known as the "King of Cats." Critic John Russell was a supporter of Balthus throughout his career, organizing his first retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1968 (giving birth to the infamous quote: "Balthus is a painter of whom nothing is known. And now let us have a look at the paintings"), and finally writing his obituary for the New York Times in 2000.