1921 Mitsou Quarante Images

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding, Scarce

The first edition of this scarce work.

Unrestored. Clean internally. 

Illustrated with forty lithographs.

Collated, complete.

'Mitsou' is the first published artistic work of Balthus, drawn by him when he was 11, and published when he was only 13.

A charming comic style work, 'Mitsou' tells the story of a boy and his cat, lost and then eventually reunited. Alongside showing his early and lifelong fascinating with cats, 'Mitsou' foreshadows Balthus' artistic ambience of loss and disappearance. 

This publication was arranged by the eminent Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who wrote the preface. Rilke was the lover of Balthus' mother, and was so impressed by young Balthus' drawings then he arrange the publication. 

Balthus was a controversial modernist Polish-French painter. He was a reclusive man, his paintes showing narrative scences, often charged and disquieting in their imagery. His childhood was emerged in the art world, meeting many famous artists and writers, including Jean Cocteau, who used Balthus' family as inspiration for his novel 'Les Enfant Terribles'.