Lettres croisées, 1858–1887 by Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola (review)

Over the decades, Henri Mitterand has consistently refused to subscribe to the consensus, retailed by art historians and literary scholars alike, that the publication of L'Œuvre in 1886 resulted in a definitive break between Zola and Cézanne. The recent discovery of an 1887 letter from the painter has triumphantly vindicated that scepticism, as is underlined by the terminal date of this edition's chronological span. It also affords the opportunity to reassess a lifelong friendship, 'une belle histoire, malheureusement dégradée, et encombrée jusqu'à aujourd'hui par les vulgates mal informées ou hostiles' (p. 434). The unreliable contemporary purveyors of the legend, such as Ambroise Vollard and Émile Bernard, are given short shrift. That is not to deny that Zola and Cézanne gradually drifted apart, not least in their taking opposite sides in the Dreyfus Affair. But by bringing together their interchanges over thirty years, Mitterand has done more than simply juxtapose letters already in the public domain (although an added bonus is the correction of transcription errors in John Rewald's oft-updated, since its original publication by Grasset in 1937, Paul Cézanne: correspondance). That there are more than twice as many from the painter as from the novelist is to be explained by their respective locations at various junctures as well as by the fact that Zola was somewhat more organized in securing his archives for posterity. What distinguishes Mitterand's edition, apart from its authoritative supporting documentation and a discerning bibliography, is a narrative, in the shape of substantial contextual essays prefacing each stage of the relationship between Zola and Cézanne: 'vocations solidaires', 1858–60; 'les refusés', 1861–64; 'd'un Salon l'autre', 1865–70; 'impressionnisme—à la fortune du mot', 1871–77; 'l'impression des temps écoulés', 1878–87. These take up more pages than the letters themselves. They illuminate the vicissitudes of private lives and contrasting artistic fortunes. They also detail the networks of referenced fellow painters and writers, helpfully indexed in the appended 'Notices biographiques'. In his 'Épilogue', Mitterand considers what remains a silence: the years between the 1887 letter, which might not actually be the last, and Zola's death in 1902. He makes no claim to have all the answers. But of one thing there is no doubt: this magisterial elaboration of the Zola–Cézanne relationship is by far the best we have.