Product Description: One of Honore de Balzacs most celebrated tales, The Unknown Masterpiece is the story of a painter who, depending on ones perspective, is either an abject failure or a transcendental genius or both. The story, which has served as an inspiration to artists as various as Cezanne, Henry James, Picasso, and New Wave director Jacques Rivette, is, in critic Dore Ashtons words, a fable of modern art. Published here in a new translation by poet Richard Howard, The Unknown Masterpiece appears, as Balzac intended, with Gambara, a grotesque and tragic novella about a musician undone by his dreams. "The greatest novelist of the nineteenth century and perhaps of all time." -- The New York Times
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Rating: - Two very minor classics
Brilliantly translated by Richard Howard, these two unknown tales by the master novelist, Balzac, concern the process and wonder of creation in both art and music. If you've read any of the great works of fiction---"Lost Illusions", "Père Goriot", "Cousin Bette", "Eugenie Grandet" or even "Colonel Chabert"---you will find these stories thin and pale, not up to the magnificent standard set by the others. That is, if you expect to find a similar direction. Balzac had set himself an immense task. ... Read More
Rating: - The conflicts & challenges to great artist.
The first short story [there are two in this book] is 22 pages filled with the challenges & conflicts faced by anyone who aspires to fame in the visual arts. The struggle is timeless. Readers should know beforehand that of the three artist only Frenhaufer is fictional -- Poussin & Porbus were actually living at the time of the action -- though Balzac changes their ages & -- for Porbus -- his status at that time. Fact & fiction are skillfully woven into an art form which has been utilized by so ... Read More
Rating: - Being Human
Who among us doesn't have their own 'great unfinished work?' How many of us have wanted to do something that was greater than ourselves? How many of us want to put something out there not only into the current public forum, but into the historical forum as well? Something, perhaps a work of art not only for the 'now,' but for posterity, too?
I do. And certainly most of my friends, if they're being honest, do, too. It stands to reason that although the idea and the drive may be there, ... Read More
Rating: - BORING ARGUMENTS ABOUT ART
The effect of reading the two short works in this book is one of overhearing two snobbish and conceited intellectuals arguing about painting and music in a wanna-be hip cafe. Being that, The Unknown Masterpiece is not only annoying, it's boring. Set in Paris in 1612, a young unproven painter named Nicolas Poussin has come to the city to make a name for himself by studying under the great master Frenhofer. Frenhofer has been holed up in his studio for years working on his great masterwork, a portrait ... Read More
Rating: - Artists are not gods
Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece is not about abstract art! It is about the destructive power of obsession for perfection. The artist Frenhofer over-paints and touches-up his masterpiece until it is not recognizable as anything but a mess. Balzac's Gambarra was too wordy but it does have the interesting theme of an artist, totally consumed by his personal vision, and thus not able to recognize the sacrifices and motivations of those around him. He writes an opera about the beginnings of Islam and the ... Read More
- Two very minor classics
- The conflicts & challenges to great artist.
- BORING ARGUMENTS ABOUT ART