the bay, the vivid blue of the Bay of Marseilles and the always green vegetation. ‘Some subjects demand three or four months’ work, but it is possible to take the time because the vegetation does not change. I am talking about the olive trees and pines, which are evergreen,’ he told Pissarro in 1876. In 1883 he rented a small house with a garden near the railway station in the Ch‰teau-Bovis district. In 1883 he wrote to Zola: ‘There are some beautiful views. … If you go up to the tops of the hills at sunset you will have a fine panoramic view of Marseilles and the islands, bathed in the wonderful evening light.’ He worked on this view of the Bay of Marseilles until the end of the 1880s, with the town of L’Estaque and its chimneys in the foreground, surrounded by the mountains and the great circle of the horizon, where the sea meets the sky. This imposing landscape also inspired Zola, who knew the place well. In his novel Na•s Micoulin Zola wrote: ‘The countryside is superb. Rocks embrace the bay on both sides, while the islands in the distance stand out against the horizon. The sea is nothing but a vast pool, a lake of intense blue when the weather is fine. … Beginning at Marseilles, the coastline curls round and digs out inlets before reaching L’Estaque, edged with its factories, which, from time to time, send out plumes of smoke. When the sun is at
