{"id":2059,"date":"2015-11-24T15:26:42","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=2059"},"modified":"2015-11-24T15:40:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:40:24","slug":"mitsou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=2059","title":{"rendered":"Mitsou"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Trouver une chose, c\u2019est toujours amusant; un moment avant elle n\u2019y \u00e9tait pas encore. Mais trouver un chat, c\u2019est inou\u00ef! Car ce chat, convenez-en, n\u2019entre pas tout \u00e0 fait dans votre vie, comme ferait, par exemple, un jouet quelconque tout en vous appartenant maintenant, il reste un peu en dehors, et cela fait toujours: la vie + un chat, ce qui donne, je vous assure, une somme \u00e9norme. Perdre une chose, c\u2019est bien triste. Il est \u00e0 supposer qu\u2019elle se trouve mal, qu\u2019elle se casse quelque part, qu\u2019elle finit dans la d\u00e9ch\u00e9ance. Mais perdre un chat: non! Ce n\u2019est pas permis.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Finding<\/span>\u00a0a thing,<\/span> that‘s always fun;<\/span> a moment before it\u00a0was not there<\/span> yet<\/span>. But finding<\/span> a cat<\/span>, that’s incredible<\/span>! For<\/span> this cat,<\/span> admit it, does not come<\/span> entirely<\/span> into your life,<\/span> as<\/span> would<\/span> for example any<\/span> toy<\/span> while belonging<\/span> to you now.<\/span> It remains a little off<\/span>, and it always<\/span> will be:<\/span> a<\/span> life<\/span> +<\/span> a cat, that adds up to a huge sum, I assure you.<\/span> Losing<\/span> a thing<\/span> is very sad<\/span>. It has to be assumed<\/span> that it is<\/span> in bad condition,<\/span> that it<\/span>\u00a0breaks somewhere<\/span>, that it<\/span> ends in<\/span> decay. But losing<\/span> a cat<\/span>: no!<\/span> That is not<\/span> allowed<\/span>.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A boy finds a stray cat, adopts it and gets more and more attached to it. The two spend a lot of time together and we see them in many everyday situations and small adventures. Then, Mitsou,\u00a0the cat, disappears again; cats are doing this sometimes, so we don’t need to suspect the worst. But the boy is inconsolable, searches for Mitsou everywhere, but to no avail.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A sad but everyday story of a heartbreaking loss. What makes it extraordinary is the fact that this real-life experience\u00a0was made into a series of beautiful drawings by the 11-year old boy to whom it happened. Balthasar Klossowski, today known as Balthus, told this story 1919 in 40 drawings that show\u00a0an already fully accomplished artist. Cats and girls proved to be his lifelong artistic interests. (His brother Pierre was a also a talented painter and a writer.) Stylistically, the drawings resemble woodcuts and a certain influence of the Flemish artist and book illustrator Frans Masereel, who at around the same time published several “novels without words”,\u00a0can be detected.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rainer Maria Rilke, who was at that time the lover of Balthus’ mother Baladine, added a foreword in French when Mitsou<\/em> was first published in 1921 and from which the above quote is taken. Therefore the review is not included in German Literature Month. (Rilke wrote also occasionally poems in French.)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mitsou<\/em> is a very charming and beautiful book. When you love cats or when you just want to enjoy a book with beautiful illustrations, you will like this precious work very much.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Art historian Sabine Rewald, author of the book Balthus: Cats and Girls<\/em> describes here<\/a> how she tracked down the surviving complete set of original drawings that were shown for the first time\u00a0in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York not long ago. You can see also some samples of these wonderful drawings when you click on the hyperlink.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The English edition of the book is out of print, but you can find this gem with a bit of luck in antiquarian bookstores or online shops. The French and German editions\u00a0are still available.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Balthus\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mitsou. Forty Images by Balthus. Preface by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Richard Miller, The Metropolitan Museum of Art\/Harry N. Abrams, New York 1984<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sabine Rewald: Balthus: Cats and Girls, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2013<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Rilke quote in this blog post is translated from French by Thomas<\/span> H\u00fcbner.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Thomas H\u00fcbner\u00a0and mytwostotinki.com, 2014-5. Unauthorized use and\/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog\u2019s author and\/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Thomas H\u00fcbner\u00a0and mytwostotinki.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.<\/strong><\/pre>\n
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