"The Masterpiece", as it is entitled in English, is a fictionalised account of the Impressionist circle around Paul Cezanne. Zola, who had become an eminent art critic, turns his skills as a forensic commentator on France of the Second Empire and its emerging avant-garde art circles, creates a stunning story of the misunderstood artist whose desire to create the ultimate painting is thwarted by his own timidity and the intolerance of the art world which was unwilling to accept the revolutionaryu art forms of the young men who rebelled against the Salon.