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

His Masterpiece

Author
Emile Zola
Series
World Classics
Language
English
Length
350 pages
ISBN
9781909904910
Published
15 November 2013
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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