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
alluded; 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