His Masterpiece

The Masterpiece is a highly fictionalized account of Zola's friendship with the painter Paul Cézanne. Zola and Cézanne grew up together in Aix-en-Provence, the model for Zola's Plassans, where Claude Lantier is born and receives his education. Like Cézanne, Claude Lantier is a revolutionary artist whose work is misunderstood by an art-going public hidebound by traditional subjects, techniques, and representations. Zola's self-portrait can be seen in the character of the novelist Pierre Sandoz.

Emile Zola (1840-1902) is best known for his series of novels telling the history of the Rougon-Macquart family. 'Nana' (1880) and 'Germinal' (1885) are among the most powerful of the novels.