Self-portrait 1940

This is a self-portrait by Balthus, and what strikes me is how he's used these muted, almost drab greens and browns to capture himself in paint. It's like he’s deliberately avoiding anything too flashy. Looking closely, you see how the paint isn’t trying to hide itself; it’s not blended into some seamless illusion. Instead, it's layered, and you can almost feel the texture, like he's building up the image slowly, thoughtfully. The way he's holding the brush, like an extension of his own gaze, there's something very internal about it. That smoky, gray-green, seems to suggest a kind of modesty, or perhaps a certain reserve. It reminds me a little of Courbet, that same attention to the real, the unvarnished. Maybe Balthus is reminding us that painting is, at its heart, about seeing, about feeling, and about the endless conversation between the artist and the world.