Friday, 11 April 1884

I read Guy de Maupassant and then suddenly Zola. Heavens, what a difference. Zola and the rest is like Bastien-Lepage and the artists who think they are following him by painting peasant women and filthy wretches!
At Sèvres.
I am so occupied with the painting and with my correspondence with the unknown that I no longer have time to complain. Julian writes that the painting is on the cimaise.

Notes

Marie distinguishes between Zola's authentic naturalism and the superficial imitators who copy his surface subjects (peasants, wretches) without his depth — exactly as she distinguished Bastien-Lepage from those who merely reproduce his rural subject matter.