Honoré de Balzac
Paperback | Pages: 57 pages Rating: 3.86 | 2734 Users | 207 Reviews
Be Specific About Books Concering La Obra Maestra Desconocida (La Comédie Humaine #71)
| Original Title: | Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu |
| ISBN: | 8475220002 (ISBN13: 9788475220000) |
| Edition Language: | Spanish |
| Series: | La Comédie Humaine #71, Études philosophiques |
| Characters: | Nicolas Poussin |
Interpretation To Books La Obra Maestra Desconocida (La Comédie Humaine #71)
A New York Review Books Original 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.Discurso artístico #5Declare Epithetical Books La Obra Maestra Desconocida (La Comédie Humaine #71)
| Title | : | La Obra Maestra Desconocida (La Comédie Humaine #71) |
| Author | : | Honoré de Balzac |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 57 pages |
| Published | : | 2001 by Visor (first published August 1831) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Art. Cultural. France. Literature. European Literature. French Literature. 19th Century |
Rating Epithetical Books La Obra Maestra Desconocida (La Comédie Humaine #71)
Ratings: 3.86 From 2734 Users | 207 ReviewsCriticism Epithetical Books La Obra Maestra Desconocida (La Comédie Humaine #71)
14 October 2012This is the first I've read of Honore de Balzac, and I was not in the least disappointed. More poetry than prose, the writing was among the finest I've ever read, reminding me at times of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky and at other times of Djuna Barnes (whom T.S. Eliot said one must be trained in understanding poetry in order to fully appreciate). It was so easy to get lost in the detailed descriptions and the dialogue between the characters that I finished the relatively short book inHé! Hé! Malgré le malheur des temps, nous causerons peinture!One of those unforgettable, perfect stories on the purpose of art and literature!Written by the master storyteller Balzac in the first half of the 19th century, recapturing a century of wild debates on the question: What is art? And what is the role of the artist?, it somehow offers a conclusion to the classical era and prophetically opens up the discussion that will dominate the century to come: should an artist be a Pygmalion, trying
As I read the story, I knew Nicolas Poussin was a real artist, but I didn't realize Frans Porbus was until afterward. Not that that changes anything. I can only guess Balzac used the names of two real artists to give his tale and the fictional Frenhofer even more authenticity than his words already seem to do.A.S. Byatt's Portraits in Fiction has a breakdown and interpretation of this story that says it all (except that I found Frenhofer's 'lectures' a bit boring, like, well, lectures).
The Unknown Masterpiece (Le Chef-D'Œuvre Inconnu) was first published in August 1831 in the journal "L'Artiste" and shortly thereafter, in the third volume of the collection "Romans et Contes philosophiques". Although described by Satiat as a "hastily written version of a fairy tale" by ETA Hoffmann entitled "La Leçon de violon", translated by Loève-Veimars for the aforementioned magazine in April of the same year, the two stories have little to nothing in common. Hoffmann's short, humoristic
I'm not the best judge of short stories since they're really not my thing. But I did enjoy this, sort of. The writing is good, even though I was left with more questions than answers when I'd finished. Maybe its too deep for me, I don't know. But if I was to give the Master painter in this story a piece of advice (and who am I?) I'd say "beauty in art is knowing when to call it finished. " There's such a thing as overbeating egg whites. Its only 30 pages and is free. Read it for yourself and see
A successful painter and his protege visit an old master who has overworked himself. For ten years he has worked on his masterpiece without anyone yet obtaining the merest glimpse of it. Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu has also been translated as The Unknown Masterpiece.I think I enjoyed this story more the first time I read it. Between the readings which were about ten years apart, I read Zola's novel The Masterpiece (L'oeuvre) which rather spoiled me for the second reading of Balzac's short story.
I must say that I greatly enjoyed Balzac's exploration of the idea that in art, it is not enough to simply copy reality. There is a reason that 'art' shares its root with 'artificial'. When we take the form of life and reproduce it on the page, or in sculpture, it becomes reduced and limited by the medium, losing its vitality and becoming corpselike. When we reduce a breathing, three-dimensional figure to the unmoving, flat plane of the canvas, depth is inevitably lost. So, as artists, we must
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