Title of Artwork: “The Street”

Artwork by Balthus

Year Created 1933

Summary of The Street

An allegory of early painters such as Bosch and Brueghel’s outdoor group scenes can be seen in this tableau of urban life, which depicts a larger group of people than the more intimate couples or single individuals he usually painted. A combination of Surrealism’s mysterious effects, stiff postures and elevated atmosphere, as well as classical composition of figures in architectural space, is used to update this depiction of shared (or parallel) sociality. Using some of the techniques of Renaissance-era painting, he creates a vanishing perspective for the viewer by foreshortening the individual figures at their various depths in a precise layout of proportions. Otto Dix’s ambiguous portraiture and Max Beckmann’s group tableaus in modern spaces were both produced at the same time, but Dix’s work is more refined.

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.