A pair of painters offer various bribes, one, at last successful, to be allowed to see the hidden masterpiece of a third and more established painter. Alas!, For one of the younger men despairs of his own work...and destroys himself. ( )

Artist and His Model (1926) - by Pablo Picasso

This New York Review Books edition is indeed a classic since it includes not only two highly philosophical works by French master Honoré de Balzac on the nature of art and music but also an illuminating introductory essay by philosopher of art/art critic Arthur C. Danto. For the purposes of my review I will focus the author's tour de force, The Unknown Masterpiece.

The story revolves around three painters - Porbus, Poussin and Frenhofer. Porbus can be seen as the Flemish painter Frans Pourbus, Poussin, the master Nicolas Poussin in his youth and Frenhofer, the true genius in the story, is a creation of Balzac’s imagination. After reading and falling in loving with this short work, many are the artists who have linked themselves to Frenhofer, including Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne.

Rather than simply recapping events within the story, I will turn to a number of provocative philosophical questions raised by Balzac’s tale. Firstly, there is the matter of art as a form of magic. In his essay on The Unknown Masterpiece included in this NYRB edition, Danto states: "From the perspective of magic, every image has the possibility of coming to life, and perhaps the first images every drawn, however crudely executed, were viewed with an awe that still remains a disposition of the most primitive regions of the human brain. This is why images have been forbidden in so many of the great religions of the world, and why they have been destroyed in the name of iconoclasm. It is why Plato was afraid of art, and drove artists from his Republic."

At one point Frenhofer judges a portrait painted by Probus: “You can see she’s pasted on the canvas – you could never walk around her.” To paint in such a way that the viewer can mentally walk around a woman, man, animal, plant or other object painted on canvas requires rendering a two dimensional plane into three dimensions, technical expertise developed in the Western artistic tradition over centuries, reaching staggering heights beginning in the period of the renaissance. Yet to really vitalize a painting, an added ingredient is needed. What shall we call it? Genius, perhaps? If any image can come to life, even those first images created in the dawn of humanity as Danto notes, how powerful and magical is a painting infused by highly polished technique coupled with the spark of genius? Now institutions and champions of the status quo who fear the power of the image really have something to worry about.


Frans Pourbus the Younger - Portrait of Isabella Clara Eugenia, around 1600-1615


Nicolas Poussin - detail from Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well, l648

For the artists in the tale, as for nearly all artists, is it any accident hot-blooded passionate love for another person is so much a part of their lives and has such an influence on their art? There’s something both inspiring and intoxicating about love, most especially erotic love, and how eroticism mixed in with the mystery of artistic creation is nothing less than explosive. Frenhofer exclaims, “Oh! I would give all I possess if just once, for a single moment, I could gaze upon that complete, that divine nature; if I could meet that ideal heavenly beauty, I would search for her in limbo itself!”

And the female nude? Oh, yes, as Balzac details in his story, the keg of dynamite that is erotic love becomes supercharged even further when an artist takes a woman’s nudity as the subject. Again, Frenhofer: “Poetry and women show themselves naked only to their lovers!” And the female who poses nude for Frenhofer? The beautiful Gillette, the loving mistress of Poussin. You will have to read for yourself to find out exactly how Balzac’s story unfolds.

Shifting our focus to a slightly different topic, does the sense of place participate in this creative and artistic magic? In the spirit of his realistic prose, Balzac notes the exact locations of the artist’s studios – Rue des Grands-Augustins, Pont Saint-Michel, Rue de la Harpe. Ah, Paris! Such a magnet for artists. So inspired was Pablo Picasso by Balzac's story, he moved his studio to Nº 7 Rue des Grands-Augustins.

Lastly, at the very end of the story, along with Porbus and Poussin we encounter the masterpiece Frenhofer has spent the last ten years of his life painting. From Balzac’s description, can you see what the artist wishes you to see? And what does it mean to know a masterpiece? Taking Picasso’s Artist and His Model pictured above, what would it mean to come to know this work of art? Or maybe a better question would be: Could we ever completely know such art? Does a measure of power derive from its mystery? And there’s that foot! Echoes of Frenhofer and Balzac? ( )

Location 86:
La mission de l'art n'est pas de copier la nature, mais de l'exprimer !

Nous avons à saisir l'esprit, l'âme, la physionomie des choses et des êtres. Les effets ! les effets ! mais ils sont les accidents de la vie, et non la vie.

Location 103:
La Forme est, dans ses figures, ce qu'elle est chez nous, un truchement pour se communiquer des idées, des sensations, une vaste poésie.

Location 237:
Comme Orphée, je descendrais dans l'enfer de l'art pour en ramener la vie.

Location 396:
Les fruits de l'amour passent vite, ceux de l'art sont immortels.

This is the first part of "Etudes Philosophiques" followed by "Gambara" and it is part of the masterpiece written by Blazac La Comedie Humaine. ( )

Location 86:
La mission de l'art n'est pas de copier la nature, mais de l'exprimer !

Nous avons à saisir l'esprit, l'âme, la physionomie des choses et des êtres. Les effets ! les effets ! mais ils sont les accidents de la vie, et non la vie.

Location 103:
La Forme est, dans ses figures, ce qu'elle est chez nous, un truchement pour se communiquer des idées, des sensations, une vaste poésie.

Location 237:
Comme Orphée, je descendrais dans l'enfer de l'art pour en ramener la vie.

Location 396:
Les fruits de l'amour passent vite, ceux de l'art sont immortels.

This is the first part of "Etudes Philosophiques" followed by "Gambara" and it is part of the masterpiece written by Blazac La Comedie Humaine. ( )

Location 86:
La mission de l'art n'est pas de copier la nature, mais de l'exprimer !

Nous avons à saisir l'esprit, l'âme, la physionomie des choses et des êtres. Les effets ! les effets ! mais ils sont les accidents de la vie, et non la vie.

Location 103:
La Forme est, dans ses figures, ce qu'elle est chez nous, un truchement pour se communiquer des idées, des sensations, une vaste poésie.

Location 237:
Comme Orphée, je descendrais dans l'enfer de l'art pour en ramener la vie.

Location 396:
Les fruits de l'amour passent vite, ceux de l'art sont immortels.

This is the first part of "Etudes Philosophiques" followed by "Gambara" and it is part of the masterpiece written by Blazac La Comedie Humaine. ( )