On January 1, 1867, Zola published in La Revue du XIXe siecle a
second important article on Manet. "What a splendid New Year's
present," wrote Manet, thanking him. The following year he
expressed his gratitude to the writer by painting this portrait
and presenting it to him. Zola posed for the painting in Manet's
studio in the rue Guyot, but he is shown working at his desk in
his own surroundings. Manet has pinned up on the wall a
reproduction of Olympia and a Japanese print; there is also a
Japanese screen. The picture radiates an astonishing freshness,
and, as with Degas's portrait of Duranty or Cezanne's of Gustave
Geffroy, one feels that the artist is in sympathy with his
subject.
In the 1868 Salon, Zola's portrait was badly hung, high
up in a corner near the doors. It was ill received by the press.
In Le National Henri Fouquier deplored the fact that Manet had
followers, and wrote pedantically, "This year Manet has painted
Zola, the high priest of the coterie of present-day
'nature-haters.' The accessories are not in perspective, and the
trousers are not made of cloth." Luc-Olivier Merson, a fashionable
artist of the period, made a comment worthy of a total ignoramus
in L'Annie illustree of May 26, "The trouble is that the man can
neither draw nor paint."
Of his experience as a sitter, Zola wrote in L'Evinement
illustre, May 10, 1868:
I remember posing for hours on end.With limbs numb from
remaining motionless and my eyes weary from staring at the light,
the same thoughts kept murmuring in the back of my mind. The
foolish chatter one hears everywhere, the lies of some and the
platitudes of others, all that human noise that flows idly by like
dirty water, was far away. It seemed to me that I had left the
earth for a higher sphere of truth, and I was filled with pity and
disdain for the poor wretches stumbling along down below.
Now and again, half-dozing off as I sat there, I looked
at the artist standing at his easel, his features taut, his eyes
bright, absorbed in his work. He had forgotten me; he no longer
realized that I was there.
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