The Unknown Masterpiece

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.