IV

In Balthus’s time

From 1961 to 1977 the Academy was directed by the painter Balthus, appointed by André Malraux. The villa was then neglected: Balthus undertook a long restoration of the buildings and gardens, recovered the old colours of the walls and gave the Villa Medici back its brilliance.

He returned to the rooms their muted colours — those faded pinks, ochres and earths now known as the “Balthus greys”. He hung the salons with tapestries, set out bronzes and antique heads, lit low lamps: everything composed like a painting.

He lived there with Setsuko, his young Japanese wife, whom he met in Rome and married in 1967. The salons, the spiral staircase and the canopied bedrooms form a setting of grave elegance, between East and Renaissance.

It was in this house, recomposed by a painter, that Jean Marc Lange spent his Roman years. Of Balthus he would say that he was for him an example and a friend rather than a master: not a teaching, but a lesson in looking.