Ilse’s Reviews > Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art > Status Update
Ilse
is on page 105 of 276
Zola needed his literary success to be expressed in material terms: big house, fine food, social advancement, bourgeois respectability, whereas the better known Cézanne became, the more he avoided the world. In his later years, the painter was living in a quarry, seeing as few people as possible, and reading Flaubert. In the modern world, one of St Antony's temptations would be that of artistic success.
— May 20, 2026 02:50AM
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Ilse’s Previous Updates
Ilse
is on page 202 of 276
Braque was like some hilltop castle that Picasso was constantly besieging. He bombards it&each time the smoke clears,the castle is as solid as ever. Thwarted,he declares the site of no strategic interest anyway.Braque,he says, merely has 'charm'; he has gone back to 'French painting', becoming the 'Vuillard of Cubism'.He tells him his pictures are 'well hung.' Braque replies that Picasso's ceramics are 'well cooked'.
— Jun 16, 2026 03:23AM
Ilse
is on page 195 of 276
Colour was regarded as suspect by classical Cubism: it was 'anecdotical', it blurted, it carried too much information, it distracted from the pursuit of form. So it had to be whipped into line - literally: that old French battle between colour and line was now taking a new turn. By 1910-1911 you could have any colour you liked, so long as it was grey, brown or beige.
— Jun 12, 2026 04:12AM
Ilse
is on page 142 of 276
Bonnard is the painter of the Great Indoors, even when he is painting the Great Outdoors. One London critic,infuriated by such dense luxuriance, described the gardens glimpsed through Bonnard's windows as 'over-planted'. At last, a painter brought before the tribunal of Gardener's Question Time ('And whiles we're about it,that Douanier Rousseau's feller's bin plantin' too many of them giant succulents on his patch').
— Jun 07, 2026 10:06AM
Ilse
is on page 106 of 276
Cézanne was well read in the classics; and also proved that it is possible, if rare, to be a Balzacian, a Stendhalian and a Flaubertian all at the same time. Monet called him 'a Flaubert of painting': certainly, Cézanne had the monkishness required; also the belief that the artist behind the art should remain obscure. Though he was also - unlike Flaubert - rather prudish and proper when it came to women.(1/2)
— May 22, 2026 03:05AM
Ilse
is on page 8 of 276
Flaubert believed it was impossible to explain one art form in terms of another & great paintings required no words of explanation.Braque thought the ideal state would be reached when we said nothing at all in front of a painting.But we are very far from reaching that state.We remain incorrigibly verbal creatures who love to explain things, to form opinions.It is a rare picture which stuns,or argues, us into silence.
— Jan 21, 2026 08:47AM
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Jan-Maat
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May 20, 2026 03:14AM
Interesting the two childhood friends ending up living such contrasting lives!
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Jan-Maat wrote: "Interesting the two childhood friends ending up living such contrasting lives!"True! Wondering if anyone wrote a novel about their friendship - Barnes suggests that their 'quarrel' was not so much caused by Zola's depiction of the painter in L'Œuvre --assumed to be Cézanne - than their different answer to 'the terrible question of success' (Barnes writesIt's generally true that success, however defined, drives artistic friends apart more than failure does - which made me wonder about other examples of such artistic friendships (Picasso & Braque?)
I'm assuming you've either read or plan to read The Masterpiece (Le Oeuvre)? Also a shallow fictionalization of their relationship in the 1930s movie, I think The Life of Emile Zola, starring Paul Muni. May have to find time for this.
Ilse wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "Interesting the two childhood friends ending up living such contrasting lives!"True! Wondering if anyone wrote a novel about their friendship - Barnes suggests that their 'quarrel..."
I have no idea about Picasso and Braque, though as with Cezanne and Zola they seem to have had contrasting attitudes towards life?
Its an interesting thought, the opposite to "opposites attract" maybe?
Greg wrote: "I'm assuming you've either read or plan to read The Masterpiece (Le Oeuvre)? Also a shallow fictionalization of their relationship in the 1930s movie, I think The Life of Emile Zola"Greg, you guessed right, I hope to read L'Oeuvre one day, because I wish to read the whole Rougeon-Macquart cycle (I've only read Nana so far, and since L'Oeuvre is the fourteenth part and I have the intention to read it in the order Zola recommended, it might take some time to get there). On the 1930 movie, there is the 2016 film on their friendship 'Cézanne et moi', but reviews are lukewarm and after watching 'Cezanne au pays d'Aix' twice (in the Centre Caumont in Aix-en-Provence) I'd rather read a biography on Cezanne (and on Zola) instead - and am somewhat tempted by what sounds like a poetic take on Cézanne and his circle by the novelist Marie-Hélène Lafon, Cézanne: Des toits rouges sur la mer bleue. Since visiting Aix-en-Provence I have a soft spot for Cézanne :).
Linda wrote: "Interesting contrast."Absolutely! Zola and Cézanne had quite a different class and family background - and temperaments - good material to build novels on :).
Jan-Maat wrote: "I have no idea about Picasso and Braque, though as with Cezanne and Zola they seem to have had contrasting attitudes towards life?Towards life and towards art - although initially on the same line, even so intensily that they 'co-started' painting what would become known as cubist. The contrasting temperaments of Picasso and Braque seem to find an echo in those of Zola and Cezanne (although Braque seemed a more amiable person than Cezanne).
Its an interesting thought, the opposite to "opposites attract" maybe?
Maybe yes, but in Zola and Cezanne's case, perhaps one can imagine that the simple fact of being at the same school and finding each other in mutual interests at young age helped a great deal too? Apparently their childhood roles reversed (protector to protected) when Zola's success and influence grew in Paris - and so the dynamics of their friendship likely did too?
I find it amusing how Cezanne's evolution is reflected in Le Ventre de Paris through the character of Claude Lantier!
Ilse wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "I have no idea about Picasso and Braque, though as with Cezanne and Zola they seem to have had contrasting attitudes towards life?Towards life and towards art - although initially..."
Those two close, yet contrasting lives are a fantastic opening into late ninteenth century France, so much to chew over!