Zola's desk

In my previous post, I admired Zola's desk in the portrait by Manet, small and cluttered.

However, that was before his major successes as a writer. After his publisher decided to pass along some of the profits, Zola really found himself in the money. Then he really let loose, at his country house in Medan, which also housed Japanese curiosities and sets of armor suspended from the ceiling (pictured above).

In his Parisian apartment, he favoured the more austere, reflective, clean and minimal in his surrounds, one could even call it a monastic and spartan writing space....

Complete with persian rug across the top of his desk!