France Today Live Masterclass – The Life of Paul Cézanne, and His Fractured Friendship With Émile Zola

 
France Today Live Masterclass – The Life of Paul Cézanne, and His Fractured Friendship With Émile Zola

Thursday, March 20th 12:00 – 14:00 (EST)

Marking the celebration of the Year of Cezanne, join travel writer and former French literature professor Lanie Goodman for a captivating two-hour masterclass on a tale of art and nature, friendship and deception: the diverging paths of Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola.

“With an apple, I will astonish Paris,” declared artist Paul Cezanne well over a century ago. At the time, the misanthropic painter was living in his native town, Aix-en-Provence, embittered by a lifetime of professional and personal struggles. This summer marks a major celebration of the artist in Aix-en-Provence, including the reopening of Cezanne’s country home, Jas de Bouffan, his restored atelier, three exhibitions and guided visits. The first part of the masterclass will explore Cezanne’s life and his revolutionary influence on modern painting —how luminous colors and geometric shapes in nature and the imposing grey and lavender limestone silhouette Mont Ste-Victoire shook up the art world and inspired later masters, from Picasso to Hockney.

The second part will take a deep dive into the early friendship and ultimate estrangement between frenemies Paul Cézanne and celebrated writer Emile Zola, from their early schoolboy days at the College Bourbon in Aix to their definitive rift in 1886, spurred by Zola’s publication of L’Oeuvre, loosely based on a failed painter who closely resembled Cézanne. Both social misfits at school, the inseparable pair roamed the Aixois countryside, swimming, fishing, and reciting verse by romantic poets. But when Cézanne quit law school to join Zola and study painting Paris, the city’s artistic circles made him increasingly ill at ease. Retreating to Provence, Cezanne died with little recognition of his work, unlike Zola, who was entombed in the Panthéon alongisde the nation’s heroes.

The webinar will include a 10-minute break and two Q&A sessions. Participants will receive a handout and will also get a chance to submit a question in advance.

About our Speaker:

Born and raised in New York, Lanie Goodman is an arts and travel writer based in the south of France since 1988. She is a freelance contributor to publications including Condé Nast Traveller and Departures International Magazine, Centurion, Galerie, France Today and the author of Romantic French Homes (Cico Books, London, 2019) and Moving Towards the Light: The Paintings of Joseph Raffael (2015) devoted to the late Antibes-based American artist Joseph Raffael. Formerly a Professor of French Literature at Rutgers University and Baruch College, CUNY, she now teaches courses in Communications at the SKEMA at Sophia-Antipolis. Goodman has also translated four French novels into English, including The Mustache by Emmanuel Carrère.

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