![]() Gillette's beauty is so great that it inspires Frenhofer to finish his project quickly. ![]() Poussin offers his own lover, Gillette, as a potential model. He has been working on this future masterpiece, that no one has yet seen, for ten years. Although Frenhofer has mastered his technique, he admits that he has been unable to find a suitable model for his own masterpiece, which depicts a beautiful courtesan called Catherine Lescault, known as La Belle noiseuse. With some slight touches of the paintbrush, Frenhofer transforms Porbus' painting such that Mary the Egyptian appears to come alive before their very eyes. The painting is of Mary of Egypt, and while Frenhofer sings her praises, he hints that the work seems unfinished. He is accompanied by the old master Frenhofer who comments expertly on the large tableau that Porbus has just finished. Young Nicolas Poussin, as yet unknown, visits the painter Porbus in his workshop. ![]() "Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu" is a reflection on art, and has had an important influence on modernist artists. It appeared again later in the same year under the title "Catherine Lescault, conte fantastique." It was published in Balzac's Études philosophiques in 1837 and was integrated into the Comédie humaine in 1846. ![]() It was first published in the newspaper L'Artiste with the title "Maître Frenhofer" (English: "Master Frenhofer") in August 1831. Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu (English "The Unknown Masterpiece") is a short story by Honoré de Balzac. ![]()
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