![]() "What have you done?" said Porbus in an undertone to Poussin. "Nothing on my canvas!" exclaimed Frenhofer, glancing alternately at the two painters and his picture. "You did not anticipate such perfection!" But then he overhears Poussin telling Porbus that eventually Frenhofer must discover the truth - the portrait has been overpainted so many times that nothing remains. "Ah!" Frenhofer cries, misinterpreting their wide-eyed amazement. When at last his fellow artists Poussin and Porbus are allowed to inspect the finished canvas, they are horrified to see a blizzard of random forms and colours piled one upon another in confusion. ![]() The Unknown Masterpiece is the tale of Frenhofer, a great painter who spends 10 years working and reworking a portrait which will revolutionise art by providing "the most complete representation of reality". If he did, he would certainly have spotted the irony but might have been surprised that his old friend could take any delight in it. ![]() We don't know whether Engels heeded the advice. The story was itself a little masterpiece, he said, "full of the most delightful irony". ![]() ![]() In February 1867, shortly before delivering the first volume of Das Kapital to the printers, Karl Marx urged Friedrich Engels to read The Unknown Masterpiece by Honoré de Balzac. ![]()
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