Baladine Klossowska
Encyclopedia
Baladine Klossowska or Kłossowska (born in 1886 as Elisabeth Dorothea Spiro, died in 1969) was a twentieth-century European painter. She was the mother of the artist Balthus
Balthus
Balthasar Klossowski de Rola , best known as Balthus, was an esteemed but controversial Polish-French modern artist....

 and the writer Pierre Klossowski
Pierre Klossowski
Pierre Klossowski was a French writer, translator and artist. He was the eldest son of the artists Erich Klossowski and Baladine Klossowska, and his younger brother was the painter Balthus.-Life:...

, and the last lover of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...

.

She was born Elisabeth Dorothea Spiro in Breslau, Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 (now Wrocław, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

). Family members report Elisabeth Spiro descended from a family with Greek origins. She married the painter and art historian
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

 Erich Klossowski
Erich Klossowski
Erich Klossowski or Kłossowski was a German and Polish-French art historian and a painter, now primarily known as the father of the writer-philosopher- painter and actor Pierre Klossowski and the artist Balthus...

; the couple moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where their sons were born — Pierre in 1905 and Balthasar in 1908. Elisabeth Spiro Klossowski pursued her own artistic career under the name Baladine Klossowska; she preferred life in France and lived there through much of her later life.

The Klossowskis were forced to leave France in 1914, at the start of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, due to their German passports. The couple separated permanently in 1917; Klossowska took her sons to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. They moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

in 1921 due to financial pressures. Mother and sons returned to Paris in 1924, where the three lived a materially marginal existence, often dependent upon help from friends and relations.

Klossowska met Rilke in 1919. The two pursued an intense but episodic romance that lasted until Rilke's death in 1926. Rilke called Klossowska by the pet name "Merline" in their correspondence, which was published after his death.

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