Pierre Auguste Cot

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Bédarieux , Pierre Auguste Cot Monument

Pierre Auguste Cot (born February 17, 1837 in Bédarieux , France, † August 2, 1883 in Paris ) was a French painter.

Live and act

Pierre Auguste Cot was born in 1837 to Étienne Cot and Justine Cabrol in Bédarieux in the Hérault department . His father was a foreman in a spinning mill. Cot studied with Jean-Paul Laurens at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse , whose first popular student he would later become. Then he moved to Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux-Arts and became a student of Léon Cogniet . He also studied with Alexandre Cabanel and William Adolphe Bouguereau . In 1863 he exhibited for the first time in the Paris Salon .

Twenty creative years followed, during which Cot was particularly successful as a painter of portraits as well as allegorical and historical pictures. Pot also studied ancient classical music and chose themes from mythology for his works. In 1868 and 1872 he made trips to Italy. In addition to Paris, he also stayed regularly in his native city of Bédarieux . In addition to Laurens, his circle of friends included the artists Paul Pujol and Antonin Mercié as well as the writers Alphonse Daudet , Albert Delpit , Charles Buloz and Ferdinand Fabre.

Spring , 1873

From 1870, Cots' popularity grew steadily, so that he was awarded medals (1870, 1872, 1878) and in 1874 was knighted in the French Legion of Honor . He painted well-known pictures from art history such as The Spring (1873) and The Storm (1880), which earned him a great reputation. His works were particularly popular with the contemporary nobility. Contemporary critics recognized Cot's talent and the successful execution of his pictures, but complained that he only served modern taste instead of following academic ideals. His portraits have also been criticized for lacking individuality and for representing a dubious ideal of bourgeois distinction.

In 1881 Cot fell ill with hepatitis. He died in Paris in 1883 at the age of 46.

Cot had been married to Juliette Duret, daughter of the sculptor Francisque Joseph Duret , since 1868 . The marriage resulted in Cot's daughter Gabrielle, of whom William Adolphe Bouguereau painted a portrait that he presented on the occasion of her wedding to the architect Zilin in 1890. Cots son Etienne-William (1875–1961) received painting lessons from him and from 1898 exhibited portraits and genre paintings in its salon as a member of the Société des Artistes Français .

Works (selection)

  • 1863: Portrait d'un professeur
  • 1867: Baigneuse
  • 1868: Indigence on le Dernier soution , La Nymphe Salmaios et Hermaphrodite , Chut
  • 1869: La Priere , La Toilette
  • 1870: Dionysia - Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan; Ophelia , Promethee , Meditation , Pour ma sœur , le Repos
  • 1872: Le Jour des Morte au Campo-Santo de Pise , Dionisa , Jeune fileaeu tambour de basque
  • 1873: Madeleine , Bayadère , à Vienne
  • 1873: Spring (Le Printemps) - Metropolitan Museum of Art , oil on canvas, 213.4 × 127 cm, signed P + A + COT 1873

This picture, which shows a pair of young lovers on a swing, is one of Cot's most famous works. He exhibited it in 1873 with great success at the Paris Salon. There it was first bought by the industrialist and art patron John Wolfe, passed through various private hands and was exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum from 1903 to 1939 . In 2012, the last private owners donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it had previously been on loan for six years.

The Storm , 1880
  • 1880: The Tempest (La Tempête) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, oil on canvas, 234.3 × 156.8 cm, signed P + A + COT + 1880

This painting depicts a young couple in love fleeing a storm. Contemporary critics suspected a literary model such as Daphnis and Chloe by Longos or Paul and Virginie by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre . The work was exhibited in 1880 by the art collector and philanthropist Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828–1887) on behalf of Cot at the Paris Salon. It was as well received as Spring . Numerous reproductions were made of it, not only in the form of graphics and paintings, but also as tapestries , porcelain and fans. In 1887, Der Sturm was transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of a 143-work collection from the late Wolfe, for which a separate gallery had been set up there. In addition to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Storm has now also been exhibited at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa and the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala .

  • 1882: Mireille

Mireille was Cot's last work; it was shown at an exhibition in Amsterdam in 1883 and later at the Musée du Luxembourg .

Several works by Cot hang in the Louvre in Paris .

literature

Web links

Commons : Pierre Auguste Cot  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lamathière Théophile: Panthéon de la Légion d'honneur: dictionnaire biographique des hommes du XIXe siècle. Paris 1875, via the Archives Biographiques Françaises, p. 432.
  2. ^ Alfred Dantès (pseudonym of Charles Victoire Alfred Langue): Dictionnaire biographique et bibliographique: alphabétique et méthodique des hommes les plus remarquables dans les lettres, les sciences et les arts, chez tous les peuples, à toutes les époques. Boyer, Paris 1875, via the Archives Biographiques Françaises, p. 431.
  3. ↑ a b c Elmar Stolpe: Cot, Pierre-Auguste . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 21, Saur, Munich a. a. 1998, ISBN 3-598-22761-2 , p. 497.
  4. ↑ Émile Bellier de la Chavignerie, Louis Auvray: Dictionnaire général des artistes de l'école française depuis l'origine des arts du dessin jusqu'à nos jours: architectes, peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs et lithographes. Renouard, Paris 1882–1885, via the Archives Biographiques Françaises, p. 435.
  5. ^ Entry in database Base Léonore culture.gouv.fr, accessed May 12, 2013.
  6. ^ Charles Sterling, Margaretta M. Salinger: French Paintings: A Catalog of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1955, pp. 193–194 ( online ).
  7. ↑ Portrait of Gabrielle Cot sothebys.com, accessed May 12, 2013.
  8. ↑ Springtime metmuseum.org, accessed 12 May 2013.
  9. ↑ Carol Duncan: Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museum. Routledge, London 1995, p. 148.
  10. ↑ The Storm metmuseum.org accessed, May 12, 2013.
  11. ↑ Lamathière Théophile: Panthéon de la Légion d'honneur: dictionnaire biographique des hommes du XIXe siècle. Paris 1875, via the Archives Biographiques Françaises, p. 434.
personal data
SURNAME Cot, Pierre Auguste
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Bédarieux , France
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1883
Place of death Paris