Émile Zola's photographic legacy and the exhibition of his photographs in Royan

Few people know it, but Émile Zola was a keen photographer. He devoted the last years of his life to this pursuit, creating thousands of remarkable pictures which unquestionably deserve attention as early monuments of the photographic art.

Last year the French seaside town of Royan held a large exhibition of Zola's photographs. In the late nineteenth century Émile Zola spent three summers there at the invitation of his publisher, Georges Charpentier. It was during his last stay in Royan, in 1888, that Zola was introduced to photography by the journalist Victor Billaud.

At first Zola was astonished by the photographic passion that had seized Billaud and his publisher, but very soon he himself succumbed to the charm of this young art.

From 1894 Zola photographed the world around him. He owned numerous cameras and developed his pictures himself, in laboratories which he fitted out in all of his houses.

As a result, the photographic legacy of the great writer amounts to about three thousand pictures, of which more than two thousand survive to this day. In 2017 the Médiathèque bought a considerable part of them, restored them and prepared 500 for exhibition.

Among Émile Zola's pictures are views of Royan, the surroundings of his house at Médan and at Verneuil-sur-Seine, portraits of his family, his wife, his children and his mistress, scenes from journeys through Italy, England and France, and Paris and the Paris Exhibition of 1900.