William Balthazar Rose

'The Red Shoe' by William Balthazar Rose

William Rose Balthazar was born in Cambridge, England in 1961.[1] His family moved to Texas and then Mexico before his father became a founding member of the University of California, Santa Cruz.[2] As a child he began to draw and paint and he received degrees from the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley (BA), and later a Master of Architecture from Princeton University.[3] He studied with Jack Zajac and Eduardo Carillo when taking courses at U.C.S.C. and Kes Zapkus at Princeton University. Subsequently, he worked in the architectural offices of Michael Graves, Ralph Lerner (the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts) and Mark Mack, before devoting himself to painting.[4] He has lectured at Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, and at Baskin Arts on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus.[5]

Since 1990 he devoted himself to painting, initially basing himself in San Francisco. His work was featured at the Campbell Thiebaud Gallery (later the Paul Thiebaud Gallery), San Francisco. He became acquainted with Dennis Hare, Christopher Brown, Anthony Dubovsky and other exponents of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.[6] Wayne Thiebaud was one of the first painters to recognise his talents purchasing his work through his son Paul's Gallery.[7]

Following in the footsteps of Balthus, he moved to Sansepolcro, Tuscany, the birthplace of Piero della Francesca in 2003. Rose has lived for several years in Bath while maintaining residences in Monte Santa Maria Tiberina, Umbria and Borgo Sansepolcro, Tuscany. Rose has exhibited widely in the United States, England and continental Europe (see below). His work has been deeply influenced by Cézanne, Chardin, Corot, Giorgio Morandi and Goya in painting, and Pasolini and Peter Greenaway in film.[8]

Balthazar began painting the series that he calls ‘Cooks’ in 1991. The first examples were painted on small wooden panels and usually included a larger figure sitting to one side. Often inspired by medieval painting there is a comic quality to these painting which despite their origins in religious iconography speak of humanity’s eternal role as actors on the stage of life, sometimes play acting with great humour and other times acting out the gravest of tragedies.[9] He has had solo shows alongside Howard Hodgkin and Wolf Kahn as well as group exhibitions with Alberto Sughi, Adriano Alumni, Mario Tozzi and Ottone Rosai.

His talents and inspiration have been widely recognised by critics and patrons alike, best summarised by the following extract from Peter Davies' essay on Rose in a recent catalogue for Brian Sinfield gallery:

Indeed, despite a declared preference for the older European tradition, Rose made early professional inroads on the West Coast which saw him meeting the leading American painter Wayne Thiebaud whose hyperreal serialized depictions of cakes and food items suggested the culinary thread later used in Rose's chef compositions. Thiebaud, described by the younger British artist as a "straightforward man" typified the hard-headed pragmatism and rationalism of the modern American artist, a world apart from the eccentric and introspective romanticism of the English ‘school’, and there is no doubt that Thiebauld inspired Rose's acquisition of a detached professional persona... At times Rose conjures late Sickert, Beckmann, Balthus, Morandi, Manet, and Cezanne, variously inimitable and idiosyncratic painters who provide an oblique benchmark for Rose's inherent individualism and privileged position on a post-modern pluralist parapet.[10]

• Eisner prize, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley (1982)
• Princeton full fellowship (1987–1989)
• Bath Society of Artists (2010)[11]
• First ever Artist-in-Residence, The Bishop's Palace, Wells (2013)[12]

• William Balthazar Rose and Wende Elliott. Grant Wood’s Iowa. Countryman Press, New York: Norton & Co. 2013.[21]
• William Rose. "Giorgio Morandi." Concrete Magazine. CED. Cal Berkeley, 1981.
• William Rose. 'Interview with Lars Lerup'. Berkeley Graduate Magazine. Cal Berkeley. 1982.
• William Rose. First Poems. Santa Cruz, California, 1977.

William has paintings in private collections all over the world, and has been collected over a thirty-year period. Michel Roux Jr. has purchased several paintings and displays them in his Le Gavroche Restaurant in Mayfair, and his Roux at Parliament Square restaurant in Westminster.[22] He has profiled William's work in the magazine Seasons.[23] While Michel Roux, Jr. is a dedicated and serious art collector owning works by Matisse, Chagall and others, he named William Balthazar Rose as his favourite painter in a Country Life interview.

American painter Wayne Thiebaud and his family are collectors of William's landscapes and figurative work.

Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Clarkson recently purchased a painting at the charity auction in London for the Helen and Douglas House Hospice charity.

Other collectors of Rose's work include Roberto Vittori, Edward Lucie-Smith, Edward Chaney and Henry and Mary Bedingfeld.

• William Balthazar Rose, The Martin Evans Show, BBC Somerset, 21 October 2017.
• Cooks: William Balthazar Rose at Grefti Gallery & Grantfield Gallery, Italy. A film by Corinne Minore, 2016.
• William Balthazar Rose at the Bishop’s Palace, a film by Christopher Donovan, Bath, England, 2015.
• William Balthazar Rose at the Bishop's Palace, BBC Radio Somerset, Emma Britten.
• Grant Wood's Iowa. Iowa Public Radio, Talk of Iowa with Charity Nebbe, 2014.
• William Balthazar Rose: Sinfonia di Capelli by Corinne Minore, Galleria LaLoggia, Sansepolcro, Tuscany. Televised on several occasions throughout central Italy, 2007.
• Images of Bath and Italy, Christopher Donovan, Bath, England, 2004.
• Puzzle a film made to commemorate the collective painting of twelve artists in Anghiari, Tuscany.

• William Balthazar Rose – official website
• Brian Sinfield Gallery
• Victoria Art Gallery
• Winfield Gallery
• Bishop’s Palace,Wells
• Paul Thiebaud Gallery