Studio: international art (15.1899)

Charles Cottet

■el de Chioggia, sparkling with rich limpidity, which
he exhibited at the " Art Nouveau " ? And what of
his set of Pay sages Savoyards (1897) ?

Is he a greater colourist in these clear and
brilliant works than in those of darker and deeper
scheme ? Who would venture to assert it ?

Doubtless to the ignorant or the prejudiced, who
judge works of art from preconceived ideas, these
Venetian landscapes and these Oriental studies,
quivering with light and brightness, will appeal more
effectively, as realising the narrow conception of the
majority as to what constitutes a colourist.

Works like thePetits marchands de dattes a Luxor,
the Femmes fellah dans le cimetiere d'Assouan, or
the Marche aux huiles a Assiout—to name but a few
among many—will, however, impress and fascinate
•one more, from the point of view of pure colour,
than those just referred to, great though their
power may be. That their artistic worth is, never-
theless, in no way inferior may unhesitatingly be
asserted.

M. Cottet's conception of the East was not
.appreciated at the outset. He sees things so per-
sonally that he is bound to offend when he shows
his productions for the first time. We have grown
accustomed to an Orient so conventional, so im-
maculate, so uniformly radiant, that we were greatly
surprised at the lifelike scenes and characters
he brought back with him. The truth is always
shocking !

As to his scenes of Venice and Chioggia, and
his impressions of Savoy and the Lake of Geneva
—the latter particularly—they deserve to occupy a
foremost place in the record of his achievements.
As always, he is independent and honest in his
-vision and in his interpretation of his feelings ; and
he never fails to give us the fullest and the live-
liest realisation in his power, rising generally to
the height whence great work proceeds.

How utterly wrong, then, to regard him merely as
an impressionist ! He is far more than that, for he
is not of those who are content with a hasty im-
pression of things. In his work hitherto accom-
plished he has aimed otherwise and higher. His
■desire is, I repeat, to be a painter, a real painter, a
painter of expression ; to seize, not the passing
aspects of Nature, but her permanent forms; by
•dint of labour and anxious research, all too rare
nowadays, to penetrate, by direct observation,
into the very secrets of the soul, into the heart
■of hearts of humanity itself; to vivify and to
inspire his art thereby; to extract the Spirit of
Truth, instead of merely copying it; and thereby
to succeed in producing a manifestation of that
240

Truth higher and more general than would other-
wise be possible.

Such, unless I am deceived, is the ideal of this
noble artist. One need fear no failure in him, no

FIG. I.—" ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST"
FROM THE ROOD SCREEN IN SOUTHWOLD CHURCH

betrayal of our confidence in order to secure
success more brilliant and more striking. The
honours he has won this year with his triptych have
secured for him the admiration of the intelligent
and sensitive public, with that of his coiifreres who
are his peers. What more can he want ?