émile Zola - Photograph Of The Servants - Original Framed Print - 1895

Original photograph taken by Émile Zola (1840-1902) from the collection of Dr. François Émile-Zola (1917-1989).

Precious photograph of Jules Delahalle with his daughter Blanche.

Vintage citrate paper print. Circa 1895. Developed by Émile Zola in his laboratory in Médan.

Size: 9 x 6.5cm. With wooden frame and marie-louise (included): 18 x 24 cm. (The shade most faithful to the photograph is that of the second illustration photo).

Jules Delahalle and his wife Eugenie have occupied a central position in the lives of the Zolas since the early 1890s. Jules is a butler and valet and Eugenie a cook. They are the parents of a little girl, Blanche. Zola and Alexandrine, reluctant at first, allowed them to keep Blanche with them. They gradually grow fond of her, eventually treating her as if she were their own child. (Source: Alain Pages, preface to Lettres à Alexandrine, Gallimard)

Zola poses the father and daughter here in the Médan garden near the Charpentier pavilion. Note Blanche's big, touching smile, posing proudly with her doll. There's a strange burlesque charm that David Lynch wouldn't have disowned in this beautifully defined photograph.

It was Jules who had the Zola bedroom door broken down on the day of Émile Zola's death, September 29, 1902, and who saved Alexandrine from asphyxiation.

Find all our photographs of Émile Zola on BAUDELAIREETCOMPAGNIE.com

During the last seven years of his life, from 1895 to 1902, Émile Zola devoted himself daily to photography, which turned from a hobby into a true passion. Zola set up three laboratories for developing his photos in each of his three residences: in Paris, Médan and the house in Verneuil where Jeanne Rozerot and their two children Denise and Jacques were staying.

The vast majority of prints produced by Zola are in 9 x 6 cm format, with rarer ones in 13 x 18, 18 x 24 cm or special formats.

Relatively little known until the 1970s, Zola's passion for photography in his later years was really revealed in 1979 by Dr. François Émile-Zola, the writer's grandson in the book Émile Zola Photographe. The major Artcurial sale in 2017 enabled a number of institutions such as the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée Carnavalet and the Médiathèque de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine to add previously unseen works by this illustrious photographer to their collections. Recently, a splendid exhibition entitled Zola Photographe was organized by the Ville de Versailles and the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie from February 19 to April 20, 2025.