The Golden Days 1945

Balthus made this painting, called *The Golden Days*, at an unknown date with oil on canvas. The colours are muted, everything is covered in a haze of grey-greens and browns which make the painting seem to have aged before its time. This isn’t a painting about the joy of childhood, but about the strange and difficult process of growing up. Look at the way the figure by the fire is so smudged and blended into the painting, they are barely there at all, just a few strokes of colour and tone. In contrast the figure in the chair is more defined and solid, yet her pose is ambiguous. She could be bored or annoyed. Balthus seems to have been influenced by artists like Piero della Francesca. Like Piero, Balthus is interested in classical painting, but he brings something stranger to it, something that feels very much of the 20th Century. In this painting, the scene invites us to make up our own story, so we can decide what it’s about.