Set in 17th-century France, "The Unknown Masterpiece" is a short story that deals with the encounters and struggles of three artists: the young and ambitious Nicolas Poussin, the established artist Porbus, and the old and revered master Frenhofer. In a display of knowledge, training, and experience, Frenhofer expounds upon the challenges of working from nature and bringing painted figures to life on canvas. During a studio visit, Poussin and Porbus discover that Frenhofer is unable to attain this ideal in his own work; his prized portrait of Catherine Lescault has been revisited and reworked to the extent that the composition is nearly unrecognizable: a “chaos of colors, shapes, and vague shadings” save for the fragment of a “delightful foot” emerging from one corner. Not long after Frenhofer realizes the futility of his perfectionist efforts, he burns all of his canvases and dies. Picasso responded to the artistic struggle presented in Balzac’s story by creating two types of images to intersperse with the text: representational etchings and abstract wood engravings (carved by Georges Aubert after Picasso’s drawings).