His Masterpiece, Emile Zola [read ebook pdf .TXT] 📗
- Author: Emile Zola
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'His Masterpiece,' Which In The Original French Bears The Title Of
Preface Pg 2_L'oeuvre_, Is A Strikingly Accurate Story Of Artistic Life In Paris
During The Latter Years Of The Second Empire. Amusing At Times,
Extremely Pathetic And Even Painful At Others, It Not Only Contributes
A Necessary Element To The Rougon-Macquart Series Of Novels--A Series
Illustrative Of All Phases Of Life In France Within Certain Dates--But
It Also Represents A Particular Period Of M. Zola's Own Career And
Work. Some Years, Indeed, Before The Latter Had Made Himself Known At
All Widely As A Novelist, He Had Acquired Among Parisian Painters And
Sculptors Considerable Notoriety As A Revolutionary Art Critic, A
Fervent Champion Of That 'Open-Air' School Which Came Into Being
During The Second Empire, And Which Found Its First Real Master In
Edouard Manet, Whose Then Derided Works Are Regarded, In These Later
Days, As Masterpieces. Manet Died Before His Genius Was Fully
Recognised; Still He Lived Long Enough To Reap Some Measure Of
Recognition And To See His Influence Triumph In More Than One Respect
Among His Brother Artists. Indeed, Few If Any Painters Left A Stronger
Mark On The Art Of The Second Half Of The Nineteenth Century Than He
Did, Even Though The School, Which He Suggested Rather Than
Established, Lapsed Largely Into Mere Impressionism--A Term, By The
Way, Which He Himself Coined Already In 1858; For It Is An Error To
Attribute It--As Is Often Done--To His Friend And Junior, Claude
Monet.
It Was At The Time Of The Salon Of 1866 That M. Zola, Who Criticised
That Exhibition In The _Evenement_ Newspaper,* First Came To The Front
As An Art Critic, Slashing Out, To Right And Left, With All The Vigour
Of A Born Combatant, And Championing M. Manet--Whom He Did Not As Yet
Know Personally--With A Fervour Born Of The Strongest Convictions. He
Had Come To The Conclusion That The Derided Painter Was Being Treated
With Injustice, And That Opinion Sufficed To Throw Him Into The Fray;
Even As, In More Recent Years, The Belief That Captain Dreyfus Was
Innocent Impelled Him In Like Manner To Plead That Unfortunate
Officer's Cause. When M. Zola First Championed Manet And His Disciples
He Was Only Twenty-Six Years Old, Yet He Did Not Hesitate To Pit
Himself Against Men Who Were Regarded As The Most Eminent Painters And
Critics Of France; And Although (Even As In The Dreyfus Case) The Only
Immediate Result Of His Campaign Was To Bring Him Hatred And
Contumely, Time, Which Always Has Its Revenges, Has Long Since Shown
How Right He Was In Forecasting The Ultimate Victory Of Manet And His
Principal Methods.
* Some Of The Articles Will Be Found In The Volume Of His
Miscellaneous Writings Entitled _Mes Haines_.
In Those Days M. Zola's Most Intimate Friend--A Companion Of His
Boyhood And Youth--Was Paul Cezanne, A Painter Who Developed Talent As
An Impressionist; And The Lives Of Cezanne And Manet, As Well As That
Of A Certain Rather Dissolute Engraver, Who Sat For The Latter's
Famous Picture _Le Bon Bock_, Suggested To M. Zola The Novel Which He
Has Called _L'oeuvre_. Claude Lantier, The Chief Character In The
Book, Is, Of Course, Neither Cezanne Nor Manet, But From The Careers
Of Those Two Painters, M. Zola Has Borrowed Many Little Touches And
Incidents.* The Poverty Which Falls To Claude's Lot Is Taken From The
Life Of Cezanne, For Manet--The Only Son Of A Judge--Was Almost
Wealthy. Moreover, Manet Married Very Happily, And In No Wise Led The
Pitiful Existence Which In The Novel Is Ascribed To Claude Lantier And
His Helpmate, Christine. The Original Of The Latter Was A Poor Woman
Who For Many Years Shared The Life Of The Engraver To Whom I Have
Preface Pg 3Alluded; And, In That Connection, It As Well To Mention That What May
Be Called The Bennecourt Episode Of The Novel Is Virtually
Photographed From Life.
* So Far As Manet Is Concerned, The Curious Reader May Consult M.
Antonin Proust's Interesting 'Souvenirs,' Published In The _Revue
Blanche_, Early In 1897.
Whilst, However, Claude Lantier, The Hero Of _L'oeuvre_, Is Unlike
Manet In So Many Respects, There Is A Close Analogy Between The
Artistic Theories And Practices Of The Real Painter And The Imaginary
One. Several Of Claude's Pictures Are Manet's, Slightly Modified. For
Instance, The Former's Painting, 'In The Open Air,' Is Almost A
Replica Of The Latter's _Dejeuner Sur L'herbe_ ('A Lunch On The
Grass'), Shown At The Salon Of The Rejected In 1863. Again, Many Of
The Sayings Put Into Claude's Mouth In The Novel Are Really Sayings Of
Manet's. And Claude's Fate, At The End Of The Book, Is Virtually That
Of A Moody Young Fellow Who Long Assisted Manet In His Studio,
Preparing His Palette, Cleaning His Brushes, And So Forth. This Lad,
Whom Manet Painted In _L'enfant Aux Cerises_ ('The Boy With The
Cherries'), Had Artistic Aspirations Of His Own And, Being Unable To
Justify Them, Ended By Hanging Himself.
I Had Just A Slight Acquaintance With Manet, Whose Studio I First
Visited Early In My Youth, And Though The Exigencies Of Life Led Me
Long Ago To Cast Aside All Artistic Ambition Of My Own, I Have Been
For More Than Thirty Years On Friendly Terms With Members Of The
French Art World. Thus It Would Be Comparatively Easy For Me To
Identify A Large Number Of The Characters And The Incidents Figuring
In 'His Masterpiece'; But I Doubt If Such Identification Would Have
Any Particular Interest For English Readers. I Will Just Mention That
Mahoudeau, The Sculptor, Is, In A Measure, Solari, Another Friend Of
M. Zola's Boyhood And Youth; That Fagerolles, In His Main Features, Is
Gervex; And That Bongrand Is A Commingling Of Courbet, Cabanel And
Gustave Flaubert. For Instance, His So-Called 'Village Wedding' Is
Suggested By Courbet's 'Funeral At Ornans'; His Friendship For Claude
Is Cabanel's Friendship For Manet; Whilst Some Of His Mannerisms, Such
As His Dislike For The Praise Accorded To Certain Of His Works, Are
Simply Those Of Flaubert, Who (Like Balzac In The Case Of _Eugenie
Grandet_) Almost Invariably Lost His Temper If One Ventured To Extol
_Madame Bovary_ In His Presence. Courbet, By The Way, So Far As
Disposition Goes, Crops Up Again In M. Zola's Pages In The Person Of
Champbouvard, A Sculptor, Who, Artistically, Is A Presentment Of
Clesinger.
I Now Come To A Personage Of A Very Different Character, Pierre
Sandoz, Clerk, Journalist, And Novelist; And Sandoz, It May Be Frankly
Admitted, Is Simply M. Zola Himself. Personal Appearance, Life,
Habits, Opinions, All Are Those Of The Novelist At A Certain Period Of
His Career; And For This Reason, No Doubt, Many Readers Of 'His
Masterpiece' Will Find Sandoz The Most Interesting Personage In The
Book. It Is Needless, I Think, To Enter Into Particulars On The
Subject. The Reader May Take It From Me That Everything Attributed In
The Following Pages To Pierre Sandoz Was Done, Experienced, Felt Or
Said By Emile Zola. In This Respect, Then 'His Masterpiece' Is
Virtually M. Zola's 'David Copperfield'--The Book Into Which He Has
Put Most Of His Real Life. I May Also Mention, Perhaps, That The Long
Preface Pg 4Walks On The Quays Of Paris Which In The Narrative Are Attributed To
Claude Lantier Are Really M. Zola's Walks; For, In His Youth, When He
Vainly Sought Employment After Failing In His Examinations, He Was
Wont, At Times Of Great Discouragement, To Roam The Paris Quays,
Studying Their Busy Life And Their Picturesque Vistas, Whenever He Was
Not Poring Over The Second-Hand Books Set Out For Sale Upon Their
Parapets. From A Purely Literary Standpoint, The Pictures Of The Quays
And The Seine To Be Found In _L'oeuvre_ Are Perhaps The Best Bits Of
The Book, Though It Is All Of Interest, Because It Is Essentially A
_Livre Vecu_, A Work Really 'Lived' By Its Author. And If In The
Majority Of Its Characters, Those Readers Possessing Some Real
Knowledge Of French Art Life Find One Man's Qualities Blended With
Another's Defects, The Appearance Of A Third, And The Habits Of A
Fourth, The Whole None The Less Makes A Picture Of Great Fidelity To
Life And Truth. This Is The Parisian Art World As It Really Was, With
Nothing Improbable Or Overstrained In The Narrative, Save Its Very
First Chapter, In Which Romanticism Is Certainly Allowed Full Play.
It Is Quite Possible That Some Readers May Not Judge Claude Lantier,
The 'Hero,' Very Favourably; He Is Like The Dog In The Fable Who
Forsakes The Substance For The Shadow; But It Should Be Borne In Mind
That He Is Only In Part Responsible For His Actions, For The
Fatal Germ Of Insanity Has Been Transmitted To Him From His
Great-Grandmother. He Is, Indeed, The Son Of Gervaise, The Heroine Of
_L'assommoir_ ('The Dram Shop'), By Her Lover Lantier. And Gervaise,
It May Be Remembered, Was The Daughter Of Antoine Macquart (Of 'The
Fortune Of The Rougons' And 'Dr. Pascal'), The Latter Being The
Illegitimate Son Of Adelaide Fouque, From Whom Sprang The Insanity Of
The Rougon-Macquarts. At The Same Time, Whatever View May Be Taken Of
Claude's Artistic Theories, Whatever Interest His Ultimate Fate May
Inspire, It Cannot Be Denied That His Opinions On Painting Are Very
Ably Expressed, And That His 'Case,' From A Pathological Point Of
View, Is Diagnosticated By M. Zola With All The Skill Of A Physician.
Moreover, There Can Be But One Opinion Concerning The Helpmate Of His
Life, The Poor Devoted Christine; And No One Possessed Of Feeling Will
Be Able To Read The History Of Little Jacques Unmoved.
Stories Of Artistic Life Are Not As A Rule Particularly Popular With
English Readers, But This Is Not Surprising When One Remembers That
Those Who Take A Genuine Interest In Art, In This Country, Are Still A
Small Minority. Quite Apart From Artistic Matters, However, There Is,
I Think, An Abundance Of Human Interest In The Pages Of 'His
Masterpiece,' And Thus I Venture To Hope That The Present Version,
Which I Have Prepared As Carefully As My Powers Permit, Will Meet With
The Favour Of Those Who Have Supported Me, For A Good Many Years Now,
In My Endeavours To Make The Majority Of M. Zola's Works Accessible In
This Country.
E. A. V.
Merton, Surrey.
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