Those who are loyal to the artist will meet unexpectedly on the road to art, as if old friends meet and relatives reunite. Cézanne, who was in Aix in his youth, recognized Zola in a group of people.
Cézanne was the son of a banker, a tycoon, and his father was eagerly looking forward to his future son inheriting his father's business. Zola was poor, and his father died early. However, Cézanne was almost convinced of Zola's talent: "How I wish my paintings could be as vivid as the words you wrote." ”
At the same time, Zola also praised Cézanne: "This man is a genius. "He said so, but he always had a little doubt buried in his heart." You'll also need time to prove that you're a genius. ”
Cézanne was an honest man, and there was no doubt in the face of Zola's trust in him. Zola, on the other hand, was gentle, and he certainly did not doubt Cézanne's trust in his talents, but his appetite was greater: a poor literary young man from Aix needed the appreciation of the entire Parisian literary world.
Zola knew from the beginning that in addition to working hard, he was going to please the literary circles of Paris. Just as he told Cézanne after his little success, to succeed in Paris, to be circumvented, to travel, to be worldly.
But how did Cézanne, the honest man, know all this? What's more, even if he knew, he would still disdain it. Cézanne was simple and direct, with a single-minded belief in art and a single-minded faith in Zola, even when the entire circle of painters in Paris did not accept him.
However, for an honest person who is pure in heart and has faith in friendship, this little doubt in Zola's heart is the beginning of the tragedy of their friendship.
Cézanne could accept Zola marrying his ex-girlfriend, and he could accept the friend's advice that "you want to be secular", but what he could not accept was doubt. Doubt his talent, his efforts, his art. Until the end, Zola gave him a fatal blow.
At that time, Zola, who was already famous, wrote a masterpiece. In the book, he uses Cézanne as a model for an artist who believes he has genius, but does not, but does not, and eventually commits suicide. Cézanne read this, so angry that he wrote a letter to Zola as a sign of renunciation.
Cézanne says Zola has become, the bourgeoisie he hated before, Zora says that Cézanne has always been a nibbler and cannot support himself as much as he can; Cézanne says Zola is a dead fat man, Zola says Cézanne is a dead bald man... Yes, that's how friendship ends, starting with a little skepticism and ending with a tragic rupture in the history of literature and art.
People can't understand that two geniuses, who should feel sorry for each other, how can they break up? They all had a complete insistence on art: Zola always lost sleep whenever he had a good sentence, got up several times at night, and revised the text several times; Cézanne worked all night, thinking about a color for a long time.
However, a rupture is inevitable. Zola is scientific and realistic in his bones, but Cézanne is romantic and extremely spiritual; Zola is dressed beautifully and delicately, like a capitalist, and Cézanne is covered in oil, wind and sun, and rude like an old peasant.
But the appearance of these two people hid them and turned them upside down. Zola is soft and good at being soft, so although he is well clothed, he shouts desperately in front of Cézanne: "I am a loser, because I write for the best-selling!" "Cézanne is hard, uncompromising, he is a bird in the mountains, suffocated in the world of hypocrisy in Paris and the Salon.
Zola succumbed to the world with softness, violating his original belief in art, while Cézanne fought hard against the world and achieved himself in the daily monasticism.
Fate and personal choice have made Zola go from a poor boy to a great writer, and Cézanne has gone from a rich second generation to a madman who lives in the mountains with daily paint.
Zola was already famous during his lifetime, and he was welcomed as if a bird were a phoenix. In his lifetime, Cézanne never saw his paintings in the museum, and even the director of the local art museum in Aix swore that as long as he lived, he would never let Cézanne's paintings enter the museum.
Cézanne died of his father at the age of forty-seven and his wife at the age of fifty. Since then, he has painted a series of famous works that have been remembered throughout the ages in the history of art, among which the landscape of Mont Sainte-Victor occupies an important place.
In his contemplation of the mountain's distinctive, angular rocks, he developed a Cubist painting method and integrated the contemplation of the natural ontology with the free expression of the individual, creating a precedent for modern art.
Rilke said: "I think I know a little about Cézanne's later years. He was pale and wearing torn clothes. When he went to the studio, the children chased him behind him in droves, throwing stones as if they were driving a lost dog.
But in the depths of his soul, there is a lovely man who, at some time of being provoked, still throws his deep thoughts at rare visitors. ”
Cézanne died of an illness caused by a storm on his way to sketching. Before he died, he continued to work. After his death, people called him the "Father of Modern Art", he was excavated, offered, and stood like a god on the altar of modern art, radiating a dazzling light. Yet before he died, he was so lonely.
The road of art is full of people every day, and it is very lively. However, those who take art as their life are doomed to be lonely. Because, loneliness, is the pursuit of the eternal back picture.