Etude pour 'Nu au repos'

This drawing is related to the large oil painting Nu au repos, which Balthus executed five years later in 1977, during his final year as director of French Academy at the Villa Medici in Rome. There were numerous studies. Jean St. Clair wrote, "Should we therefore consider them as preparatory studies of the painting stricto sensu, or as a series of variations on a theme he would come back to in 1977? A certain number of them, in any event, act as independent drawings" (in Balthus, exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2001, p. 410). In the present drawing the model's head is seen looking down to the left, while in the painting it is turned to the right, so that her face is seen in profile.