The Franco-German painter Count Balthasar Klossowski the Rola (1908-2001), known as Balthus, shocked the Parisian art world in 1934 with his dreamy, sensual, Neo-Classical portrait of nymphs at a time when Surrealism and abstract tone argued . As a provocateur, Balthus was often despised as an artist and he was widely loved as a child prodigy. In response to criticism of his realistic style, Balthus said: "The reality is not what you think you see. One can be a realist of the unreal and a figurative painter of the invisible ". His erotic, poetic paintings live on as examples of the best figurative work of the modern era.