Ilse’s Reviews > Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art > Status Update

"Cézanne deeply disapproved of Zola's sale-bourgeois maid-tupping; and when, in old age, he painted female bathers, he used the life-drawings from his younger days rather than trouble a model (and perhaps, himself)."

I guess then that he might not have liked that he has himself become an object of fascination alongside his art?

I love true art stories 🖼️ thx Ilse - not sure where you get a live cubist model from 🥹🥹

Oooh I loved this one 🥰

Cézanne transformed painting, yet anecdotes like this reveal someone almost stubbornly attached to habit, privacy and restraint. What fascinates me is how frequently the history of art confounds our expectations. We tend to imagine revolutionaries as restless and transgressive in every aspect of life, yet Cézanne seems to have been revolutionary only where it mattered most: on the canvas.

Jan-Maat wrote: "I guess then that he might not have liked that he has himself become an object of fascination alongside his art?"
From what I read about him, I cannot but imagine he would have loathed such personality cult, deeply uncomfortable he was with personal attention (He even stayed away from his own first solo exhibition in Paris in 1895, he remained in Aix, leaving the business dealings to his 23 year old son Paul). Not a keen networker 😊.

When reading Zola's books, we are often immersed in Cézanne's paintings. When I was reading Docteur Pascal, I watched a TV programme on Cézanne. They showed a house near Aix - his family's house? - and I was wondering if Dr Pascal's La Souleillade was not that house...

Murray wrote: "I love true art stories 🖼️ thx Ilse - not sure where you get a live cubist model from 🥹🥹"
You are welcome, Murray - and ditto, especially when they are gorgeously written, like Barnes'. On live models (cubist 😄 or not), I loved the anecdote on Cézanne that he asked his wife, Marie-Hortense Fiquet, his most frequent model, to sit still as an apple ;-).

Melanie wrote: "Oooh I loved this one 🥰"
Melanie, so glad we are on the same page ♥ The book has been lingering around for years here, and deeply fulfilling to be able to finally read it - Barnes as a writer of essays is superb, witty, informative, a delight to read - and like his 'Through the Window: Seventeen Essays made me read almost all the authors he writes about in those essays, this one is tempting to explore some of the artists that were mostly just names to me somewhat further (like Félix Vallotton, or Bonnard...). I find him utterly inspiring as a writer of essays (liking his novels, but loving his essays...)

Pia G. wrote: "Cézanne transformed painting, yet anecdotes like this reveal someone almost stubbornly attached to habit, privacy and restraint. What fascinates me is how frequently the history of art confounds ou..."
Pia, that tendency, to imagine transformative artists as revolutionaries or rebels and expecting avant garde creators to be bohemians in their personal lives, resulting in a stereotypical view on them, is exactly what Julian Barnes turns topsy-turvy, for instance by showing how timid and bourgeois the Romantic painter Delacroix was, or indeed, Cézanne – the artists he picked focussing obsessively only on their art, working constantly – as we can discern from their astounding prolificity. On the other side of the spectrum – and he is not put in a flattering light – is Courbet who took on the pose of a revolutionary, associating himself with the French Commune, but made realist art and according to Barnes had the egomania of a true Romantic 😊.

Claudia wrote: "When reading Zola's books, we are often immersed in Cézanne's paintings. When I was reading Docteur Pascal, I watched a TV programme on Cézanne. They showed a house near Aix - his family's house? -..."
Claudia, maybe it was the 'Jas de Bouffan' family house that was shown in the documentary? You seem spot on with the house mentioned in Doctor Pascal, it would be partly inspired on the house close to Aix (the Jas de Bouffan) - and on the house of Zola in Medan:

À la fin du cycle des Rougon-Macquart, Le Docteur Pascal nous offre la vision d’une dernière bastide provençale, la troisième de la série. Il s’agit de la Souleiade: autrefois « propriété considérable », entourée de « vastes terres » (de « terres rouges », précise le texte), elle est désormais réduite à un seul « corps de bâtiment ».

Ces trois bastides, imaginées à partir du modèle originel du Jas de Bouffan[25], sont placées aux points cardinaux du cycle des Rougon-Macquart : à l’origine du cycle (La Fortune des Rougon), dans sa conclusion (Le Docteur Pascal), et dans la référence autobiographique centrale où l’écrivain se met en scène lui-même (L’Œuvre).

La Souleiade du Docteur Pascal renvoie également au décor de la maison de Médan. Au-delà de la terrasse prolongeant la maison, un terrain en pente donne sur la ligne de chemin de fer qui traverse la région, comme le fait la ligne de chemin de fer Paris-Le Havre, à Médan.

Soon I hope to continue with Zola as well - and because of your observation how reading Zola evokes Cézanne's paintings, I also look forward to get to the last chapter of Romanticism and Its Discontents, entirely dedicated to Zola and painting ♥.

Ilse wrote: "Claudia wrote: "When reading Zola's books, we are often immersed in Cézanne's paintings. When I was reading Docteur Pascal, I watched a TV programme on Cézanne. They showed a house near Aix - his f..."

Thank you Ilse for your thorough response and information. Le Jas de Bouffan makes sense, as well as the topography of Medan. The last chapter of this book will probably provide you with more insights. While reading the opening chapters of Madeleine Férat I felt as if I were in an Impressionist painting. Enjoy Zola's novels in the light of this book!