Balthus images and biography Join the ARTCHIVE PATRON PROGRAM. For your donation, receive benefits including a CD-ROM of this entire site. (1908-2001) See also: Surrealism; VIEW LIST OF BALTHUS IMAGES ON THE WEB Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, known as Balthus, French painter. From a highly cultivated family background, he began painting at the age of sixteen. He met Rilke - who wrote the preface ...