Studio: international art (15.1899)

Charles Cottet

"PETITS MARCHANDS DE DATTES A LUXOR " BY CHARLES COTTET

to my great regret, I cannot discuss in detail here.
It must suffice to mention the following, which form
part of the series Au Pays de la Mer—Le Pardon de
la Saint-Jean a Landaudec; La Sortie de barques
de pfahe a Camaret; Vieux pecheur ; Femmepauvre,
soir d'kiver; Jeunes filles et vieilles femvies; and
Vieille marcha?ide de ftommes, these two last-named
pictures being particularly striking, and admirably
rich in treatment, despite a certain hardness in
certain parts.

We now come to M. Cottet's celebrated triptych.
In the special number of The Studio, entitled "Art
at the Paris Salons, 1898," were reproduced the
cartoons of this work, which marks a date in the his-
tory of modern French art. In the present number
is published an ensemble reproduction from the
original, as well as a study in colours of the central
panel, which, while striking the keynote of the
entire composition, must not be taken to represent
that composition in its entire form.

The central panel represents the Repas d?Adieu
of the sailors ; the right-hand panel shows Celles qui
restent—that is, the women, the sweethearts, and
the children, who stand on the cliffs, while the
husbands, the lovers, and the brothers in the left

panel sail away on the wide sea, to win bread fo
those near and dear to them. These are Ceux qui

s'en vont.

It is the whole poem of the fisherman's life ; the
story of his joys ever overshadowed by the grief of
the parting soon to come ; the story of his struggles
and his woes. Their gestures, their attitudes, and
their expressions have here assumed a certain
gravity. They are men of few words, for the con-
stant presence of peril, and the meditation inspired
by the sea even in the most vulgar minds, invests
their manners with a sort of austere melancholy.
A peasant meal is full of noise and jollity and
gesticulation ■ but the fisherman would seem, from
listening to the sea, to have caught the habit of
silence. The tiller of the soil works hard for his
livelihood, to be sure; but the fisher's struggle
with the waves is terrible, and full of unforeseen
danger—at every moment he carries his life in his
hand. Can he ever be sure, when he kisses his
dear ones on leaving home, that he will return and
cross that threshold again ?

There is in this central panel, representing the
Farewell Feast, an air of subdued sadness. One
divines among these persons assembled—for the

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