Les femmes peintres dans les romans et les nouvelles zoliennes : artisanes ou artistes ?

Abstract

“Women Painters in Emile Zola’s Novels and Short Stories: Artisans or Artists?” Summary – Art is considered by Emile Zola as one of the crucial values, as well in his life as in his work. It appears there in many different ways: practical (collecting paintings, friendship with artists) and theoretic (critical writings on art). One of the consequences of the author’s passion for art are literary characters of male and female painters in several novels of his Rougon-Macquart series and some of his short stories. The paper focuses on a few characters of women painters, taking into consideration Zola’s opinion about female creation, its position and its value compared to the work of men. Christine Hallegrain from The Masterpiece, Clotilde Rougon from Doctor Pascal and Mrs Sourdis from an eponymic short story are used to prove that even the most gifted woman is not able to achieve the level of a male performance, as the value of the genuine art consists of the very element of male genius. This is why women painters can never be considered as artists, they are always just artisans.