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The Mountain

1936–37
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 955
Painting in his austere Paris studio, Balthus imagined and depicted in this monumental canvas an escape from the congested city to the open landscape of Niederhorn Mountain, near Beatenberg, Switzerland. A hiking party of seven explores the mountainous terrain together, yet the figures are strangely isolated from one another, a persistent characteristic of Balthus’s work. The figure’s disparate poses and activities—walking, stretching, kneeling, and sleeping—heighten their detachment and enhance the scale and remoteness of the landscape. Invoking life in summer, The Mountain is one in an abandoned series of four canvases meant to symbolize the seasons.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Mountain
  • Artist: Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski) (French, Paris 1908–2001 Rossinière)
  • Date: 1936–37
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 98 in. × 12 ft. (248.9 × 365.8 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Nate B. Spingold and Nathan Cummings, Rogers Fund and The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Fund, by exchange, and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1982
  • Object Number: 1982.530
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

Audio

Cover Image for 1915. The Mountain

1915. The Mountain

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