这幅《左拉像》的作者是十九世纪法国名画家埃多瓦·马奈(1832—1883),画于1868年。那时,马奈已三十六岁,艺术上已经成熟;左拉却才二十八岁,在文坛上正初显身手。但早在一年多前,左拉已成为马奈的“辩护士”了。马奈是十九世纪后半期法国印象派绘画的先驱人物。他继现实主义画家库尔贝之后,不画那些神话、宗教、历史的题材,而以日常所见的生活动态或自然风光入画。以油画技法而论,他一反学院派绘画那种暗沉沉的褐色调子,而采用十分明朗的色彩,用笔也讲究舒畅流利。他曾经从前辈大师那里得到启发,主要是西班牙的委拉斯凯兹和戈雅;另外也受到色彩明朗的日本木版画“浮世绘”的影响。但是,马奈的艺术之所以有价值,生要还在于他能敏锐地直接观察阳光反映在景物上的丰富色彩,并辛勤地探索新的技法,忠实地表现他自己的感受;而这也就是印象派画家们共同的精神。马奈惯于描绘城市生活,尤其是歌台舞榭中的人物动态,例如《瓦仑西亚的罗拉》(1861)、《斗牛士装束的维多琳小姐》(1862)等等。如果马奈专门画这类题 This “Zola image” was written by nineteenth-century French painter Eduard Manet (1832-1883), painted in 1868. At that time, Manet was thirty-six years old and artistically mature. Zola was only twenty-eight years old and was beginning to demonstrate his skill in the literary arena. But as early as a year ago, Zola had become Manet’s “defender”. Manet was a pioneer of French impressionist painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. Following Courbet, a realist painter, he painted novels of the myths, religions and histories, but dynamically or naturally in everyday life. In terms of his techniques of painting, when he opposed the dark brown tone of the academy painting, he adopted a very clear color and his pen was elegant and fluent. He used to be inspired by his great masters, mainly Velazquez and Goya in Spain, and influenced by the colorful Japanese woodcut “Ukiyo-e”. However, the art of Manet is valuable because he can keenly and directly observe the rich colors of the sun reflected in the scenery, and explore new techniques industriously to show his own feelings faithfully; and that is, Impressionist artists common spirit. Manna is used to portraying the city life, especially the movements of figures in song and dance dances, such as Rolla in Valenciania (1861), Miss Vidignan in the Torero (1862) and many more. If Manet devoted to painting such questions