Image: Image reproduction rights managed by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; institutional source link provided
View source →Pablo Picasso, published 1931, reworked late 1950s
Medium
Book with 12 etchings hors-texte, 67 wood engravings, and crayon, with black morocco binding
Dimensions
32.5 × 25.3 cm (12 13/16 × 10 in.)
Style
Surrealist-influenced modernism
Decade
1930s
The official Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois record identifies Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece) as a Pablo Picasso etching, dated published 1931, reworked late 1950s, in Book with 12 etchings hors-texte, 67 wood engravings, and crayon, with black morocco binding. Picasso’s illustrations for Honoré de Balzac’s short story The Unknown Masterpiece included engravings, line drawings, and etchings. Balzac’s tale of a misunderstood artist who works in secret on an “unknown masterpiece,” appealed to Picasso. He made unusual line and dot drawings, which he later heightened with crayon, dedicating it to the book’s first owner, art dealer Henri Matarasso (1892–1985).
Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece) is grouped under Surrealist Period for gallery navigation using the date published by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. This period label provides high-level art-historical orientation and does not supersede the primary collection record. The institutional credit line is: Bequest of Maxine Kunstadter.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →2026 Estimated Value
Public collection / market value not asserted
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
Continue Exploring
Chosen for shared style, era, medium, subject, or date.
Minotauromachia
March 23–May 3, 1935 · same style · same era
Bacchic Scene with Minotaur, from the Vollard Suite
May 18, 1933, printed and published 1939 · same style · same era
Reading
1925–26 · same style · same era
Faun Uncovering a Sleeping Woman (Jupiter and Antiope, after Rembrandt), from the Vollard Suite
June 12, 1936, printed and published 1939 · same style · same era
Bald Painter Before his Easel, plate six from Le Chef d'oeuvre inconnu
1927, printed and published 1931 · same style · same era
Le Chef d'oeuvre inconnu
published 1931 · same style · same era
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