The Turkish Room 1963

Balthus made "The Turkish Room" with oil on canvas, and you can just tell he’s having a really good time with the paint itself. It's like he's delighting in the sheer pleasure of pushing the paint around, layering colors and textures. Look at how the blue and green patterned wallpaper contrasts with the pinks and yellows of the room's furniture. The texture looks pretty smooth, not too thick, which is surprising for such a dense image. I wonder if he was thinking about Matisse, maybe even Ingres, as he was making it? There's a kind of cool sensuality here, a mix of observation and imagination, that just pulls you in. It seems to me that painters are always in conversation with each other, across time and space. Each painting builds on what came before, while also pushing in new directions. What I love about painting is how it embraces uncertainty, how it invites you to linger and look closely, without offering any easy answers.