Balthus's ancestral debates
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Balthus' father, Erich was born to a noble Polish family (szlachta) of the Rola coat-of-arms, that lived in Prussia. This was evidently the reason for his son Balthus, to add, later, "de Rola" to his family name Klossowski, which was in tradition of szlachta (if he lived in Poland, the arrangement of his last name would have been Rola-Kłossowski or Kłossowski h. Rola.) The artist was very conscious of his Polish ancestry and the Rola arms was embroidered onto many of his kimono, in the style of Japanese kamon.
According to most biographies, Balthus denied having any ethnic Jewish heritage, claiming that biographers had confused his mother's true ancestry. In "Balthus: A Biography" by Nicholas Fox Weber, Weber, who is Jewish, attempts to find common ground whilst interviewing Balthus by bringing up a biographical note that stated Balthus' mother was Jewish. Balthus replied "No, sir, that is incorrect." and went on to explain:
"One of my father's best friends was a painter called Eugen Spiro, who was the son of a cantor. My mother was also called Spiro, but came apparently from a Protestant family in the south of France. One of the Midi Spiros - one of the ancestors - went to Russia. They were likely of Greek origin. We called Eugen Spiro "Uncle" because of the close relationship, but he was not my real uncle. The Protestant Spiros are still in the south of France."
Balthus continued by saying he did not think it was tasteful to forcefully correct these errors, given his many Jewish friends. Nicholas Fox Weber concludes in his biography that Balthus was lying about this "biographical error," though the exact reasoning behind why was never explained. Weber states that the name "Spiro" is only a Greek given name, though this incorrect, as the personal name serves equivalently as a surname. Balthus consistently repeated that if he, in fact, was Jewish, he would have no problem with it. In support of Weber's view, Balthus did make dubious claims about his ancestry before, once claiming he was descended from Lord Byron on his father's side.
According to Weber, Balthus would frequently add to the story of his mother's ancestry, saying that she was also related to the Romanov, Narischkin, and lesser known Raginet families among others, though, conceedingly, Balthus never claimed his mother's side was from a straight un-mixed lineage, and despite the sensationalism with which Weber says he told these stories and the method in which Weber presents Balthus' claims, Balthus never saw himself as contradictory. The true extent of what Balthus was saying for artistic worth and what he was saying in earnest is unknown as he did not stick seriously to all his claims. Weber never interviewed Balthus' brother, Pierre, in order to confirm or deny Balthus' mother's ancestry, though he did present a quote by Baladine's lover, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in which Rilke states that the Spiros were descended form one of the richest Sephardic-Spanish families. In a seemingly conclusionary note, Weber writes "The artist neglected, however, to tell me that, in the most miserable of ironies, Fumio (Balthus' son) suffered from Tay-Sachs disease."
Weber holds this up as evidence that Balthus say lying about not having Jewish ancestry, given Tay-Sachs is a heavily Ashkenazic-Jewish disease. This, of course, conflicts with Rilke's report of the Spiros being Sephardic, which Weber later says was a "Rilke embellishment" and also brings up the relevance of the preponderance of Japanese infantile Tay-Sachs, since Balthus' wife was Japanese.
