Copy and go (FWN 394, 1862-4)

blog 12.jpg

Portrait of Emile Zola                      1862/4                 FWN394               26cm x 21

They were like the Musketeers – they wanted to conquer Paris and the world! Baptistin Baille (later to become a distinguished Professor of Optics and Acoustics at the School of Physics and Chemistry of the City of Paris, an institution he helped to found); Emile Zola (novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism) and Paul Cezanne (artist and post-impressionist painter) – “The inseperables”, they were called at their school in Aix-en-Provence. Zola had already moved to Paris to pursue his career, and was constantly trying to persuade Cezanne to join him; he wrote in 1861: ‘Of course you can work here, as anywhere, given the willpower. Moreover, Paris has something you can’t find anywhere else, museums which you can study from the masters from eleven till four. Here is how you could organize your time. From six to eleven you’ll go to an atelier and paint from the live model; you’ll have lunch, then from midday till four, you’ll copy the masterpiece of your choice, either in the Louvre or the Luxembourg…’                                                                                                                         Eventually Cezanne did in fact spend many hours in the museums, and he turned out to be rather good at copying other painter’s style. But he wanted to go further: he did not want to be bound by the past, he wanted to develop his own style, and something more: “The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read. We must not, however, be satisfied with retaining the beautiful formulas of our illustrious predecessors. Let us go forth to study beautiful nature, let us try to free our minds from them, let us strive to express ourselves according to our personal temperaments. Time and reflection, moreover, little by little modify our vision, and at last comprehension comes to us.”

We’re goin’ on a bear hunt,

We’re going to catch a big one;

We’re not scared

What a beautiful day!

Oh look! It’s a deep, dark cave!

Can’t go over it,

Can’t go under it,

Can’t go around it

Got to go through it!

Michael Rosen