Zola and Cézanne were attracted to each other because they shared many of the same artistic interests (Elgar 13). Zola and Cézanne played an important role in each other's future life with Zola helping start Cézanne's art career and Cézanne helping Zola to start thinking about pictorial art (Rewald 14). Between the years 1859-1860 Cezanne studied law in Aix-en-Provence. During this time he began to paint one of his first artistic peaces "Jas de Bouffan" at his parents' home. Finally, after much discussion, in 1861 Cézanne informed his father he was going to become an artist. Furthermore, he was going to leave school and pursue his dream with Zola in Paris. His father never really approved of Paul's decision, but eventually agreed to give him financial support (Elgar 17). From 1864 to 1869, Cézanne submitted his work to the official Salon, but the pieces were continually rejected (24). During this time most of his paintings were extremely personal in character, dealing with some bizarre subjects of disturbance and fantasy (Hansen 39).
The years from 1865 to 1870 were known as Cézanne's early romantic period (Lindsay 75). During this time, Cézanne met Camille Pissarro, with whom he painted outside of Paris. Pissarro was mostly well known for his many quiet rural landscapes and river scenes. In addition, Pissarro introduced Cézanne to the New Impressionist technique for depicting outdoor light (Elgar 64). And through Pissarro, Cézanne soon became part of the "Impressionist- group. During this time in Cézanne's life, he felt isolated and alone with a few friends and only exhibited his work a couple of times. And to make matters worse he was criticized and rejected due to the uniqueness of Cezanne's paintings. Through these rough times, Zola and Cézanne would look to each other for encouragement.