1882-07 · The Hague · Knot of Motif

The Zola Year in The Hague

Reading Zola, he saw paintings in the novel’s townscapes.

F898 Sien with Cigar Sitting on the Floor near Stove 1882

Letter

In June 1882 he spent more than three weeks in hospital. There he read Zola’s Une page d’amour and found several of its Paris townscapes “painted or drawn in a masterly, masterly fashion”; he decided to read everything by Zola, of whom he had known only a few fragments. After leaving hospital he wrote in a postscript: “That Emile Zola is a superb artist. I’m now reading ‘Le ventre de Paris’, it’s mightily clever.” Two weeks later he had also read Nana, and told Theo: “Zola is actually Balzac II.”

Place

The Hague, Schenkweg 136. Back from hospital in early July, he moved into a large upstairs flat here: a north-facing room for the studio, and a huge panelled attic besides. In the little living room, by the window looking out on the yard and meadows, stood a big wicker armchair for Sien, and next to it a small iron cradle with a green coverlet. In mid-July Sien returned here with the baby born in the hospital at Leiden. The place, he wrote, now had an atmosphere of home.

The Ferocious Reader

He read Zola with a painter’s eye. In Une page d’amour he saw townscapes “painted or drawn” in a masterly way; in Le ventre de Paris he marvelled at “how painted those Halles are”. He also gave Zola a place: Balzac portrays the society of 1815–1848, Zola begins where Balzac leaves off and goes on to Sedan, or rather to the present day. The ferocious reader here reads the novel as another kind of painting, and sets its author in a chronicle of society.

Synaesthetic Precision

He could not look at the little iron cradle in the new home without emotion: to sit beside the woman one loves with a child in the cradle was, for him, the eternal poetry of Christmas night with the baby in the manger, as the old Dutch painters conceived of it — “that light in the darkness”. He hung the Rembrandt etching of two women beside a cradle above it, and later planned to paint the cradle again on a rainy day, entirely in watercolour. A single piece of furniture seen at once as picture, poem and light.

Events

1882-06-07 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 237
He was admitted to the municipal hospital in The Hague for an illness and stayed for more than three weeks, returning to his studio on 1 July.
1882-07-01 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 241
On the day he left hospital he wrote to Theo that everything looked beautiful on the way back: the light seemed brighter, the spaces bigger, and all the objects and figures more important.
1882-07-06 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 244
He wrote that in hospital he had read Zola’s Une page d’amour, whose Paris townscapes were painted or drawn in a masterly fashion; that small book made him decide to read everything by Zola, of whom he had known only a few fragments.
c. 1882-07-07 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 245
The letter describes the new home on Schenkweg. In a postscript he wrote: That Emile Zola is a superb artist. I’m now reading Le ventre de Paris, it’s mightily clever.
c. 1882-07-15 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 246
Sien came back to Schenkweg with the baby born at the hospital in Leiden. He wrote that the place now had an atmosphere of home, and that he could understand why Michelet says ‘Woman is a religion’.
1882-07-23 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 250
Theo too had read Le ventre de Paris; Vincent had also read Nana, and said that Zola was actually Balzac II: Balzac portrays the society of 1815–1848, Zola begins where Balzac leaves off and goes on to Sedan, or rather to the present day.
1882-07-26 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 251
‘I’m still under the spell of Zola’s books. How painted those Halles are.’ In the same letter he said that on a rainy day, when he could not go out, he would have another go at the cradle, entirely in watercolour.
c. 1882-08-10 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 255
He added at the end of a letter that he was busy with Zola’s La curée.

From the Letters

In “Une page d’amour” van Emile Zola vond ik eenige stadsgezigten meesterlijk / meesterlijk geschilderd of geteekend

In ‘Une page d’amour’ by Emile Zola I found several townscapes painted or drawn in a masterly, masterly fashion

Letter 244

Die Emile Zola is een fameus artist / ik lees nu “le ventre de Paris” / het is alle - magtig knap.

That Emile Zola is a superb artist. I’m now reading ‘Le ventre de Paris’, it’s mightily clever.

Letter 245

Dat laatste meubel kan ik niet zonder emotie aanzien

I can’t look at the last piece of furniture without emotion

Letter 245

Ik kan mij begrijpen dat Michelet zegt/ la femme c’est une religion.

I can understand that Michelet says ‘Woman is a religion’.

Letter 246

Hoor eens / Zola is eigentlijk Balzac II

Listen, Zola is actually Balzac II.

Letter 250

Ik ben nog altijd vol van die boeken van Zola _ Wat is dat geschilderd / die Halles.

I’m still under the spell of Zola’s books. How painted those Halles are.

Letter 251

Letter Sources

Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org