Soon after their arrival in Paris, he deserted Gervaise for a girl named Adele, with whom he lived for several years, during which he appears to have done little work. After Adele left him he renewed friendship with Gervaise and Coupeau, her husband, and induced them to take him into their home as a lodger. Once established there, he paid nothing for his support, and soon Gervaise was supporting him as well as her husband, who by this time was doing nothing. Gervaise, having become disgusted with her husband’s intemperance, resumed her old relations with Lantier, and these continued till she was financially ruined, and her shop was taken over by Virginie Poisson. Lantier, having transferred his affections to Virginie, was allowed to retain his old position as lodger, and soon resumed his former tactics of paying no rent and living off his landlord. In course of time he succeeded in eating the Poissons’ stock of sweetmeats and bringing them to ruin, and then began to look out for some one else to support him. L’Assommoir.
LANTIER (CLAUDE), son of Gervaise Macquart and Auguste Lantier, was born at Plassans in 1842. He was brought up by his paternal grandmother, but when she died, in 1850, he was taken to Paris by his parents. La Fortune des Rougon.
After Lantier’s desertion of Gervaise, and her subsequent marriage to Coupeau, Claude continued to reside with his mother, but a few years later an old gentleman of Plassans, a lover of pictures, who had been greatly struck by some daubs done by the child, offered to pay for his education. The offer was accepted, and Claude returned to Plassans. L’Assommoir.
Some years later his benefactor died, leaving him an income of a thousand francs a year, enough to prevent him dying of hunger in the artistic career which he had decided to follow. Having come to Paris with an intense hatred of romanticism, he was struck by the artistic possibilities of the Halles Centrales, the great provision markets of Paris, which he haunted in search of subjects for his brush. He was induced by Florent to attend one of the republican meetings in Lebigre’s cafe, but was not in sympathy with the movement, and declined to take part in it. He occasionally visited his aunt, Madame Lisa Quenu, but revolted against her complete indifference to art, and her middle-class selfishness. Le Ventre de Paris.
He was appointed a member of the family council which nominally had charge of Pauline Quenu’s fortune. La Joie de Vivre.
He established himself in a studio near the roof of an old house close to the river, and there lived the life of a Bohemian, with an absolute disdain for everything not related to art. He revolted against the canons of the schools, and tried to achieve truth in painting by adopting an exaggerated realism. His hopes became centred in a large painting, which he called Plein Air, intended for exhibition in the Salon. The picture was rejected, and when shown at a minor exhibition was greeted with derision by the public. About this period began his connection with Christine Hallegrain, with whom he lived for several years, and ultimately married. They took up house at Bennecourt in an old cottage, and there some years passed happily enough, a son named Jacques Louis being born in 1860. But Claude gradually became discontented, and the family returned to Paris, where there began a long struggle against poverty, a struggle beginning in high anticipation and ending in despair. After a long search for a subject for a picture which was to be his masterpiece, Claude selected a stretch of the river near Notre Dame, and into this he intended to put all those new theories of art with which he hoped to revolutionize the world. Everything was sacrificed to this picture; the small fortune left him by his early benefactor was gradually realized to provide food, and when it was exhausted there was little but starvation for the artist and his dependants. The work was begun in a frenzy of genius, but was constantly interrupted by doubts and indecision; it became a monomania, and under its influence Claude’s mind gradually became unhinged; the family virus was at last showing itself. Christine was wholly taken up with her husband, and their child died of an illness due greatly to neglect. By this time Claude was incapable of any real feeling save for art, and the death of his child only served to give him a subject for a picture. Having torn himself away from his intended masterpiece for a time, he painted L’Enfant Mort, which was exhibited in the Salon, and met with an even more contemptuous reception from the public than his Plein Air. Christine used all her influence to prevent her husband from returning to his task, but his brain had become obsessed by the great idea, which his hand proved powerless to execute as his mind became increasingly deranged. At length, in a moment of delirium, he hanged himself in front of the picture which had proved the means of his undoing. His genius was incomplete, and he was unable to carry out his own theories, but they were adopted by other and less able successors with better results. He was buried in the cemetery of Cayenne at Saint-Ouen. L’Oeuvre.
LANTIER (MADAME CHRISTINE), wife of the preceding. See Christine Hallegrain. L’Oeuvre.
LANTIER (ETIENNE), the youngest son of Auguste Lantier and Gervaise Macquart, was born in 1846, and accompanied his parents to Paris in 1850. La Fortune des Rougon.
After his mother had been married to Coupeau for some time, and had started her laundry, Etienne was found somewhat in the way, and on the suggestion of Goujet was sent to work in the rivet-making factory where he himself was employed. Later the boy was sent to Lille, where he was apprenticed to an old master of Goujet, an engineer in that town. When Gervaise had fallen into poverty, Etienne, who was by that time a stoker on an engine, was able to send his mother a five-franc piece occasionally. L’Assommoir.
In a moment of passion Etienne struck his chief, and was at once dismissed from his employment. An industrial crisis existed at the time, and, finding it impossible to get work, he tramped from place to place till eventually he arrived at Montsou, worn out with fatigue and want. At the Voreux pit he chanced to get work in a gang led by Maheu, and went underground for the first time. The work was hard and distasteful to him, but he was unwilling to give it up, and was perhaps influenced by the bright eyes of Catherine Maheu, who toiled alongside him. He became more and more impressed with the sense of the hardships of the miners’ lives, and his mind was also influenced by Souvarine, a confessed anarchist, beside whom he lodged. Gradually Etienne began to indoctrinate his companions with a spirit of revolt, and when the great strike broke out he became the leader. He did not, however, accept the extreme doctrines of Souvarine, and endeavoured to dissuade the strikers from doing damage to property. In this he was not altogether successful, and his influence became considerably lessened, until he was blamed by his comrades for the hardships they had to endure during the strike, and for its ultimate collapse. He returned to work, and in the terrible catastrophe brought about by Souvarine he was cut off at the bottom of the pit with Chaval and Catherine Maheu. He had always loved Catherine, and notwithstanding their peril, an old jealousy revived, and in a struggle with Chaval, Etienne killed him. Days elapsed before rescue came, and by that time Catherine was dead. After six weeks in hospital, Etienne left for Paris. Germinal.