and left, with all the vigour
of a born combatant, and championing M. Manet--whom he did not as yet
know personally--with a fervour born of the strongest convictions. He
had come to the conclusion that the derided painter was being treated
with injustice, and that opinion sufficed to throw him into the fray;
even as, in more recent years, the belief that Captain Dreyfus was
innocent impelled him in like manner to plead that unfortunate officer's
cause. When M. Zola first championed Manet and his disciples he was only
twenty-six years old, yet he did not hesitate to pit himself against men
who were regarded as the most eminent painters and critics of France;
and although (even as in the Dreyfus case) the only immediate result of
his campaign was to bring him hatred and contumely, time, which always
has its revenges, has long since shown how right he was in forecasting
the ultimate victory of Manet and his principal methods.

* Some of the articles will be found in the volume of his
miscellaneous writings entitled _Mes Haines_.

In those days M. Zola's most intimate friend--a companion of his 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 arti