Walter Idlewild

Catherine Lescault Walter Idlewild

A female spirit haunts works of art from the ancient pyramids to modern sculpture. Catherine Lescault describes the effect of this inspirational being on artists and audiences.

Based upon a mysterious painter's model championed by the mythical artist Frenhofer in Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece, the novel's titular personality infuses creative power into the story's characters as they harness the spirit's energies for their own fame and fortune. And that raises a troubling question: Is Catherine Lescault a willing or unwilling tenant of their creations?

Balzac's novelette has profoundly affected artists from Cezanne and Picasso to those of modern times. Catherine Lescault attempts to extend the author's principle into our present day, in the process casting light upon the hidden seams of the creative fabric.

"As fantastic as Balzac's meditation on the risk of madness in artistic creation. Once you begin to read it, you will not be able to stop. . . . Fascinating and breathtaking!"
-- Dr Anne-Marie Baron, président of the Société des Amis de Balzac et de la Maison de Balzac, Paris, France

The novelists Frenhofer and Porbus, the painter and muse Gillette, the troubadour Nicolas, and the sculptor Houdon all strive to discover the secret of creating a living artifact, despite the voices of academic critics and students, peers and rivals, relatives and loved ones, and their own withering internal frailties. Some disciples may achieve the dream of allowing the ideal courtesan subject, Catherine Lescault herself, to breathe and live and love, while other artists' fixations lead into monomaniacal madness with unspeakably tragic consequences.

Which interpretation will ultimately triumph: sculpture, paint, music, dance, acts on the stage, or words on the page?

"Will keep even the most knowledgeable reader guessing and profoundly engaged, until the last startling pages."
-- Dr John Wallen, Faculty of Arts, Sharjah University, UAE

Illustrations by Rocío De Juan Bayarri