Claude Lantier
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The painter Claude Lantier (b. 1842, the son of Gervaise Macquart and Antoine Lantier) is a fictional character created by Zola. He is a relative of the Macquarts and the central character in Zola's novel L'Œuvre.
Claude Lantier is first introduced briefly as a child in La fortune des Rougon. In L'assommoir, he comes to Paris with his parents, but returns to Plassans under the sponsorship of a local patron who recognizes his artistic talent. In Le ventre de Paris, Claude has returned to Paris, and is discovered in the Les Halles marketplace searching for realistic subjects to paint.
Zola's plan for the Rougon-Macquart novels was to show how heredity and environment worked on members of one family over the course of the Second French Empire. Claude is the son (and grandson) of alcoholics and inherits their predisposition for self-destruction. Furthermore, all of the descendants of Adelaïde Fouque (Tante Dide), Claude's great-grandmother, demonstrate what today would be called obsessive-compulsive behaviors. In Claude, this is manifested in his obsessive approach to making art.
Claude's brothers are Jacques Lantier (La bête humaine), the engine driver who becomes a murderer, and Étienne Lantier (Germinal), the miner who becomes a revolutionary and union agitator. Their half-sister is the prostitute Anna (Nana) Coupeau (Nana).
Claude's son Jacques-Louis also figures in L'œuvre, his death from unspecified causes being brought about by his parents' neglect. In him, Zola shows what happens when energy and natural creativity are stifled.
