Painted portrait of Honoré de Balzac in an open white shirt, one hand on his chest, against a warm ochre ground

Portraits · Novelists · VI of X

Honoré de Balzac

1799–1850 · Novelist

Perpetual work is the law of art, as it is the law of life, for art is idealized creation.

Le travail constant est la loi de l'art comme celle de la vie; car l'art, c'est la création idéalisée.

Honoré de Balzac · Cousin Betty (the narrator), 1846
Read it in the source →

Honoré de Balzac wrote this in Cousin Betty (1846), speaking in his own narrator's voice about a talented sculptor who lets his work slide. Conceiving fine works is a delight, he says; making them takes constant labour, which is why great artists wait neither for commissions nor for buyers.

La Cousine Bette (narrator's voice), 1846. Honoré de Balzac, The Poor Parents: Cousin Betty, tr. James Waring (Philadelphia: Gebbie, 1899), p. 229. French: Wikisource, La Cousine Bette (ed. Houssiaux, 1863, vol. XVII).

The originals

Daguerreotype of Honoré de Balzac in an open shirt, one hand on his chest
The likenessDAGUERREOTYPE BY LOUIS-AUGUSTE BISSON · 1842Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain (Bisson died 1876; Commons: PD-old-100-expired).
A handwritten letter in brown ink, addressed to Monsieur Gosselin, libraire éditeur, Paris
Letter to his publisherA letter in his own hand to the Paris publisher Charles Gosselin, September 1833, about an agreement held up by his lawsuit with another publisher, Mame.Autograph letter to Charles Gosselin, 12–13 September 1833. Maison de Balzac, Paris Musées (BAL 32), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.