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

Pablo Picasso's Illustrations of Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece - Essay Example The essay "Pablo Picasso's Illustrations of Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece" explores Pablo Picasso’s illustration of Balzac’s â€Å"The unknown masterpiece†. It is an edition of a short story by Honore de Balzac. 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 â€Å"The unknown masterpiece.† Studies done by various scholars reveal that Picasso’s works have had great impacts on the styles of many artis ts even to date. This paper discusses Pablo Picasso’s illustrations of Balzac’s â€Å"The Unknown Masterpiece† of 1931. Honore de Balzac’s â€Å"the unknown masterpiece† featured in the seventeenth century at a French studio in Paris. First published in 1831 by Balzac in a Parisian newspaper â€Å"L’Artiste†, the story reveals a lesson expounding on the statement â€Å"beneath the lines of every book is a face†. 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.