Émile Zola is known for « Germinal », « L’Assommoir » and « J’accuse… ! », his open letter in the Dreyfus affair. Fewer people know that before becoming a great novelist, he was a passionate art critic, and one of the first to defend the painters who would soon be called the Impressionists.
Here is the story of a friendship and a fight that shaped 19th-century art and literature.
Key takeaways
- Émile Zola (1840-1902) grew up in Aix-en-Provence, where Paul Cézanne was his childhood friend.
- From 1866, he defended Édouard Manet in the press against the official critics.
- Manet thanked him with a famous portrait, now in the Musée d’Orsay.
- His novel « L’Œuvre » (1886), about a failed painter, drove him apart from Cézanne.
A childhood friend called Cézanne
Zola spent his youth in Aix-en-Provence. At school he became friends with a slightly older boy, Paul Cézanne. The two teenagers shared dreams of glory, one in literature, the other in painting. Once in Paris, Zola urged Cézanne to join him, and through him he met the young artists who were rejecting academic painting.
Manet’s champion
In 1863, Manet’s « Déjeuner sur l’herbe » caused a scandal. In 1866, Zola, then a young journalist, defended him in the newspaper « L’Événement » and attacked the jury of the official Salon. His articles caused such an uproar that he had to stop his column. He published them anyway, as « Mon Salon ». For Zola, art had to show the world as it is, through a personal eye: « une œuvre d’art est un coin de la création vu à travers un tempérament » (a work of art is a corner of creation seen through a temperament).
Worth seeing: to thank him, Manet painted the « Portrait of Émile Zola » in 1868. It shows the writer at his desk, surrounded by a Japanese print and a reproduction of « Olympia ». The painting hangs in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
The Impressionists in his novels
Zola went to the Café Guerbois in the Batignolles district, where Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Pissarro met. In his « Rougon-Macquart » novels, he describes Paris with an almost painterly precision: the Les Halles market in « Le Ventre de Paris », the department stores in « Au Bonheur des Dames », the Saint-Lazare station in « La Bête humaine », which Monet also painted.
| Work | Year | Link with painting |
|---|---|---|
| « Mon Salon » | 1866 | His articles defending Manet and the young painters |
| « Le Ventre de Paris » | 1873 | Colourful descriptions of Les Halles, with a painter among the characters |
| « L’Œuvre » | 1886 | The fate of a gifted painter who fails, inspired by his artist friends |
| « La Bête humaine » | 1890 | The world of trains and Saint-Lazare station, a favourite subject of Monet |
The break
Over time, Zola became more critical. He felt the Impressionists never fully achieved their ideas and kept waiting for the “genius” who would complete this new painting. In 1886 he published « L’Œuvre », the story of Claude Lantier, a talented painter who cannot finish his masterpiece and takes his own life. Many saw Cézanne in him, mixed with Manet and others. Cézanne politely thanked him for the copy he sent, and then the two men stopped seeing each other, although historians still debate the real reasons for their estrangement.
Going further
Reading Zola in French is demanding but very rewarding: start with extracts, with help from a teacher. For more ideas, read why our students learn French or our article on Édith Piaf. And to talk about art and literature with a native teacher, try our French conversation course or the Live French Club.
Frequently asked questions
What was the link between Émile Zola and Paul Cézanne?
They were childhood friends in Aix-en-Provence. Zola encouraged Cézanne to come and paint in Paris. Their friendship faded after « L’Œuvre » was published in 1886, a novel whose hero recalls Cézanne.
Why did Zola defend Manet?
Because he saw him as an artist who painted the modern world through a personal eye, far from academic rules. In 1866 he defended him in the press against the jury of the official Salon.
Where can you see Manet’s portrait of Émile Zola?
At the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Manet painted it in 1868 to thank Zola for defending him.
Which Zola novel is about painting?
« L’Œuvre » (1886), the story of Claude Lantier, a gifted painter who cannot finish his masterpiece.
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