Pablo Picasso's Illustrations of Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece - Essay Example

21 April, Pablo Picasso’s illustration of Balzac’s “The unknown masterpiece” Introduction Theunknown masterpiece is an excitingly illustrated story about power and prospective misfortunes of artistic works. It is a distinct edition of a short story by Honore de Balzac who was a prolific nineteenth century French novelist and playwright. The story depicts a painter, who on one hand, can be perceived as a miserable failure in his painting or a mystical genius on the other hand or both. This perception is dependent on the point from which the painting is viewed. The painter is obsessed with his work in which he has considerably spent a long time struggling to complete. Surprisingly, two painters who have been secretly admiring this painter’s work are dumbfounded as they cannot get a clear picture of what the work is. Pablo Picasso, a widely known Spanish painter and sculptor, is fascinated by the mystery behind this art work rendering homage to this kind of creativity. And as part of his printmaking etchings, he writes an accompaniment illustrating the Balzac’s work “The unknown masterpiece.” Studies done by various scholars reveal that Picasso’s works have had great impacts on the styles of many artists even to date. This paper discusses Pablo Picasso’s illustrations of Balzac’s “The Unknown Masterpiece” of 1931. About the unknown masterpiece Honore de Balzac’s “the unknown masterpiece” featured in the seventeenth century at a French studio in Paris. First published in 1831 by Balzac in a Parisian newspaper “L’Artiste”, the story reveals a lesson expounding on the statement “beneath the lines of every book is a face” (Piper 25). In this story, a young artist by the name Nicolas Poussin and his guide Francoise Porbus arrive in the studio of the era’s renowned painter, Master Frenhofer. They pose as zealous admirers of Frenhofer’s works and are anxiously interested in knowing the contents of his painting. Frenhofer exposes to them the picture of a young woman which he has spent time drawing as his life’s masterpiece. But they are confused because they cannot tell whether they see or do not see anything. It appears to them as if there is no portrait except a frame of wavy lines and one striking foot. After a series of attempts changing positions, they finally notice the portrait of a woman underneath the crimped lines. They then try to figure out the state in which the painter lives but vaguely get the picture. Finally, in unclear circumstances, Frenhofer sets his work on fire after which he dies in the night, something that Porbus discovers the following day. Piper asserts that Balzac’s intention in this fiction was to enquire about the picture people get while reading a book. This is because the understanding of a book reveals what emerges from the reading process. And in the Balzac’s masterpiece, the two young artists could not easily manage to see the hidden face that was lying behind the book in a curvy manner. They had to look at the painting from various positions to be able discover the face lying behind. This means that reading may sometimes require applying different angles in order to get the underlying meaning of what is being read. It is this captivating nature of the story depicting an old painter who is in serious search of absolute beauty and perfection that made Picasso to illustrate it in 1931 (Wye and Pablo 13). His realization of the Frenhofer’s struggles for creativity, anxiety and doubts in the studio meant space for him to express his love for art work. And because he had been known for his perpetual interests in artistic works, Picasso wrote the story with etchings and drawings (Martin 74). Picasso’s illustration of “the unknown masterpiece” (1931) Since the First World War ended, Picasso spent his life painting on the floors of a building on La Boetie Street (Martin 73). This is after being commissioned by Ambroise Vollard to illustrate Balzac’s short story of “The unknown masterpiece.” He identified himself with Frenhofer since the Balzac’s captivating story caught his attention. While Frenhofer appeared to be associated with devilish nature in his works, Picasso has the epic figure of modernity, Don Juan, a never content and never satisfied artist (Barolsky 131). Frenhofer’s obsession to his art works characterizing his literature portraits is an indication of him being demon possessed which is Faustian in character. As he exposes the portrait of his art work, he relents saying that painting has a more compelling force that overpowers him (Kleinfelder 39). As Picasso works on a series of his paintings on arts and model, he would later state that thinking is embedded on romanticism as demiurge. He ridicules the romantic aspirations by the artist, Frenhofer belittling him for overworking himself up to a creative frenzy. Unfortunately, his statements would later betray his underlying attraction to creative arts for he also continues with the romantic viewpoint in his works. This is because he compares painting with making love because his art life seems to be a replication of his love life. This is due to the numerous affairs and marriages that he had. Frenholer’s painting portrayed an extraordinary creativity with a thoroughly secured secret. At the first sight of his drawing one can only notice a mess of wavy lines. Yet a close inspection reveals well finished merging themes as in the complete series of Picasso’s work. Hence, a confirmation of the allusion the drawing was meant for Picasso’s edition of the Balzac’s “the unknown masterpiece.” The final edition of “the unknown masterpiece” draws a connecting line with “the wild ass’s skin.” Piper asserts that Balzac’s theory of invisible lines would prominently be translated into visual arts in Pablo Picasso’s illustration of “the unknown masterpiece” (Piper 222). This state of the modern arts would then continue to motivate other subsequent artistic works in the twentieth century. In addition, Picasso’s understanding of the importance of the typography and appearance of the wavy lines translates into his fifty-five wood carvings of line drawings. The drawings form his texts with the title “En maniere d’introduction par Pablo Pissaco.” It consists of a variety of wavy lines that are connected by a sequence of points. It is worth noting that Picasso’s work marked a defining moment for the translation of Balzac’s edition into a visual modern art. Furthermore, his paintings are analytical and progress from emotional manipulative slides into intellectual statements (Longwell 199). Picasso’s works passed through many revolutions as he transited from different creative phases. Implication of Pablo Picasso’s illustration of the unknown masterpiece In Picassso’s illustration of the Balzac’s edition of the unknown masterpiece, he identifies himself with Frenhofer’s impressive determinations and doubts. And this meant a lot to him in Rue de Grants Augustins for he lived in the street where Frenhofer is thought to have lived. His identification with Balzac’s art works is also prominent as he practices masterpieces of Velazquez, Delacroix and Manet in his old age and these paintings are inspired by great masterpieces. Therefore, the implications of this is that he was able to create inventive variations of masterpieces which transcended the exemplars he imitated (Barolsky 131). Also, Picasso’s art works equated much to his love life replicating uncountable affairs and marriages. Barolsky writes that his “legendary desires were unbounded” and that he “obsessively sought to possess each and every one of them, over and over again.” This embodiment of erotic craving captured in Picasso is an underlying factor in the themes of western art and literature depicting him. Conclusion Piper asserts that Picasso’s work marked a turning point in translating Balzac’s visual traditional work in the artist’s book for “the unknown masterpiece” came to be rewritten in the twentieth century by W.G. Sebald (Piper 222). Sebald, a German writer, worked with texts and images and it is argued that he has surpassed other modern writers. This is because his works keep our memories refreshed about the occurrence of the visual and textual adaptation through a book print. Furthermore, Balzac’s interests in the way in which the lines intersect in the portrait are also part of Sebald’s concerns in his works. This is depicted in the making of a portrait that could have been produced from the “the unknown masterpiece.” And being that Frenholer’s painting portrayed a unique creativity in a carefully protected secret, it called for changing angles of viewing. This is an implication that everything in life should involve different approaches. Works Cited Barolsky, Paul. A brief history of the artist from God to Picasso. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010. Kleinfelder, Karen L. The artist, his model, her image, his gaze: Picasso’s pursuit of the model. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Longwell, Alicia G. John Graham and the quest for an American art in the 1920s and 1930s. 2007. Martin, Russell. Picasso’s war. 2012. Piper, Andrew. Dreaming in books: The making of the bibliographic imagination in the romantic age. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009. Wye, Deborah and Picasso, Pablo. A Picasso portfolio: prints from the museum of modern art. New York: Museum of Modern art, 2010. Read More