Charles Cottet (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl kɔtɛ]; 12 July 1863 – 20 September 1925) was a French painter, born at Le Puy-en-Velay and died in Paris. A famed Post-Impressionist, Cottet is known for his dark, evocative painting of rural Brittany and seascapes. He led a school of painters known as the Bande noire or "Nubians" group (for the sombre palette they used, in contrast to the brighter Impressionist and Postimpressionist paintings), and was friends with such artists as Auguste Rodin.[1]
Charles Cottet | |
|---|---|
 Émile-René Ménard's Portrait de Cottet (1896) | |
| Born | Charles Cottet 12 July 1863 |
| Died | 20 September 1925 (aged 62) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work | Au pays de la mer. Douleur, 1908–09 Petit village au pied de la falaise, 1905; Montagne, 1900–10 |
| Movement | Post-Impressionism |
Biography
editCottet studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and under Puvis de Chavannes and Roll, while also attending the Académie Julian (where fellow students formed Les Nabis school of painting, with which he was later associated). He travelled and painted in Egypt, Italy, and on Lake Geneva, but he made his name with his sombre and gloomy, firmly designed, severe and impressive scenes of life on the Brittany coast.[2][3][4]
Cottet exhibited at the Salon of 1889, but on a trip to Brittany in 1886 he had found his true calling. For the next twenty years he painted scenes of rural and harbor life, portraying a culture Parisians still found exotic. He is especially noted for his dark seascapes of Breton harbors at dawn, and evocative scenes from the lives of Breton fishermen.[5]
He was close friends with Charles Maurin, and his group included the painter Félix-Émile-Jean Vallotton. Cottet has often been associated with the picturesque seaside symbolism of the Pont-Aven School, though Vallotton famously painted Cottet as a leader of Les Nabis, beside Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, and Ker-Xavier Roussel, in his Five Painters (1902–3; Kunstmuseum Winterthur). Cottet was more explicitly the leader of his own small movement, the Bande noire of the 1890s, which included Lucien Simon and André Dauchez, all influenced by the realism and dark colours of Courbet.[6][7][8]
Selected works
editCottet's paintings can be found in many museums worldwide, including the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, the British Museum,[9] the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Musée d'Orsay in Paris,[10][11] the Hermitage,[12] the University of Michigan Museum of Art,[13] the Ohara Museum of Art,[14] the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[15] the National Museum of Western Art,[16] the Zimmerli Art Museum,[17] the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco,[18] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[19] and the Musée Rodin.[20]
- 1908–09 Au pays de la mer. Douleur also called Les victimes de la mer, the Musée d'Orsay.
- 1905, Petit village au pied de la falaise, Musée Malraux, Le Havre
- 1900–10, Montagne, Musée Malraux, Le Havre
- 1896 View of Venice from the Sea, the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
- 1896 Seascape with Distant View of Venice, the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.[21]
- 1896 Portrait de Cottet, the Musée d'Orsay.
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ "Benezit Dictionary of Artists". Archived from the original on 22 February 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cottet, Charles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 253.
- ^ "Grove Art Online". Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ Art, Famsf, De Young/Legion of Honor
- ^ "Who was Who on Oxford Index". Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "Grove Art Online, Bande Noire". Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ Coughlin, Maura (2014). "Death at Sea: Symbolism and Charles Cottet's Subjective Realism". Decadence, Degeneration, and the End. pp. 203–223. doi:10.1057/9781137470867_12. ISBN 978-1-349-50080-2.
- ^ "Rodin Collection". Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "print | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ Musée d'Orsay, "In the Land of the Sea. Grief"
- ^ "Musée d'Orsay, "Evening light"". Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ^ "View of Venice from the Sea – Charles Cottet". arthermitage.org. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Exchange: Filles Bretonnes". exchange.umma.umich.edu. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Old Horse in the Wasteland | OHARA MUSEUM of ART". 6 December 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Charles Cottet | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Charles Cottet | Coast of Brittany | Collection | The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo". collection.nmwa.go.jp. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "(Breton Seascape)". zimmerli.emuseum.com. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Charles Cottet". FAMSF Search the Collections. 21 September 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Woman wearing a dress with puffy sleeves". metmuseum.org. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Seascape | Rodin Museum". musee-rodin.fr. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ Art Hermitage
References
editExternal links
edit
- "Christian Brinton. Charles Cottet: Painter of Brittany" (PDF).. In Harper's Magazine, December 1910. Illustrations by Charles Cottet and Jacques-Emile Blanche
- Biography at Humrich Fine Art.
- Biography at the Oxford Gallery.
- (in French)Cottet et la Bretagne.
- (in French)Quelques œuvres de Charles Cottet in Insecula.
- (in French)Biographie et quelques œuvres on the site of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper in Quimper, France.