The Unknown Masterpiece

One of Honore de Balzac’s most celebrated tales “The Unknown Masterpiece” is the story of a painter who depending on one’s 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 Ashton’s 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.