Cover of His Masterpiece by Emile Zola Audiobook His Masterpiece
Audiobook · Sovereign

His Masterpiece

Author
Emile Zola
Read by
Eloise Fairfax
Language
English
Length
14 hours 12 minutes
ISBN
9781802561043
Published
15 October 2024
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Emile Zola
  • Zola
  • naturalism
  • art
  • establishment
  • challenge
  • social order
  • realism
  • France
  • french

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Description

His Masterpiece is a fictional account of Zola's friendship with Paul Cezanne and a fairly accurate portrayal of the Parisian art world in the mid 19th century. The story follows painter Claude Lantier who advocates painting real subjects in real places, most notably outdoors. This is in stark contrast to the artistic establishment, where artists painted in the studio and concentrated on mythological, historical and religious subjects. His art making is revolutionary and he has a small circle of like-minded friends equally intent on shaking up the art world and challenging the establishment.

Author

Emile Zola (1840–1902) grew up in Aix-en-Provence, failed his baccalaureat, and then mapped a France under pressure in the twenty novels of the Rougon-Macquart. L'Assommoir is drink and a Paris street; Germinal is the mine, the strike, the dark that works. He stood up for Dreyfus in J'Accuse...! and paid in exile. Naturalism was the method: heredity, milieu, a crowd that behaves like weather. The accusation is documentary.

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