![]() ![]() They test him by asking him to make a quick sketch. It’s a few minutes before both Frenhofer and Porbus realize that Poussin is unknown to both of them. She’s a flat silhouette, a cutout who can never turn around or change position.” “Look at your saint, Porbus! At first glance she seems quite admirable, but look again and you can see she’s pasted on the canvas–you can never walk around her. You people think you’ve done it all once you’ve drawn a body correctly and put everything where it belongs, according to the laws of anatomy! You fill in your outline with flesh tones mixed in advance on your palette, carefully keeping one side darker than the other, and because you glance now and then at a naked woman standing on a table, you think you’re copying nature–you call yourselves painters and suppose you’ve stolen God’s secrets. “Your lady is assembled nicely enough, but she’s not alive. Frenhofer criticizes Porbus’s latest work: ![]() A conversation ensues which forms Part I of the story, called Gillette after Poussin’s mistress. Porbus lets both of them in, assuming that Poussin was with Frenhofer. ![]() There are three painters, young Nicolas Poussin, the middle-aged court painter Franz Pourbus (whom Balzac calls Porbus)–both of whom were real 17th Century French painters–and Balzac’s invented older artist, Maitre Frenhofer.įrenhofer visits Porbus at his lodgings, where he meets young Poussin, who is building up the courage to knock on the door. This short story turned out to be a delightful study of what makes great art. Also translated as The Hidden Masterpiece ![]()
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