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