ZOLA (Émile) Photograph of Jeanne Rozerot on a bicycle. Print on citrate paper mounted on card (8.9 x 6.5 cm). Photograph of Jeanne Rozerot on a bicycle taken by Émile Zola, probably during his exile in England. Rozerot was the mistress and mother of the writer's only two children. Everything about our photograph seems to match that of Jeanne Rozerot on a bicycle in the catalogue of the 1990 Zola photographe exhibition at the Mairies des 2e et 6e arrondissements (no. 224). This photograph would therefore have been taken in England in the summer of 1898. At the height of the Dreyfus affair, Zola, having defended Dreyfus, was sentenced to a year's imprisonment for defaming the army. The judgement was overturned by the Cour de Cassation on 28 February, but following a new complaint by the Conseil de Guerre, the February judgement was upheld. Acupressed, Zola went into exile in England on 18 July to avoid prison. It was in these circumstances that Jeanne Rozerot, the mistress and mother of Zola's only two children, joined him on 11 August. Their romance began in 1888 after the young woman was hired as Alexandrine Zola's maid and linen maid. A holiday in Royan brought Zola and Rozerot closer together, and they began an adulterous relationship that lasted until the writer's death in 1902. It was also during this holiday in Royan that Zola took up photography. His new love affair and his passion for photography were intertwined right up to the end of his life, when Zola was constantly photographing Jeanne Rozerot and her children. Handwritten note in an unknown hand "Madame Rozerot, the mother of Zola's children [Photography by Zola himself]". Rubbing to the upper area and a few tears. Bibliography : Émile-Zola, Massin, Zola photographe, p. 82-109.