C┼╜zanne met the Aix-born painter Achille Emperaire (1829ΓÇô98) not in the south of France but at the Atelier Suisse, where they were both working on life studies. A penniless artist with an ungainly physique, Emperaire was helped by his fellow southerner on more than one occasion, and by painting this monumental portrait of him, C┼╜zanne transformed the poor outcast into an heroic figure, in much the same way that VelazquezΓÇÖs paintings of dwarfs had done. The painting was refused by the selection committee of the Salon in 1870. At once naΓÇóve, ingenuous and theatrical, the work is a celebration of the character of the subject and of his pathetic fate.
It was justly described by a mutual friend, Joachim Gasquet: ‘A dwarf, but with a magnificent head, like one of van Dyck’s cavaliers, with a fiery soul and nerves of steel. With an iron pride within a deformed body, the flame of genius burns in a misshapen hearth, like a combination of Don Quixote and Prometheus. … He [CŽzanne] has painted an astonishing portrait of Emperaire, with the dwarf’s heavy head standing out from red flowers of the upholstery, the legs, too short to reach the ground, resting on a
