Studio: international art (54.1912)

Charles Cottefs Breton Pictures

here of the theme, not, of course, of the area of Arabs as herein depicted is very closely akin to the
canvas—Cottet places a check upon himself and mute sorrows of the uncomplaining and simple
sacrifices everything to the idea, and he takes it folk that he has shown us in his Breton pictures,
as his rule of work to express only the essentials In dealing with such themes the real Cottet appears
without a single unnecessary detail and with an again.

ever-increasing dramatic intensity. Follow his For a similar reason Cottet's paintings of the nude,
work picture by picture, and you become con- so little agreeable and so little seductive as they may
scious of an inner life of ever-growing significance be, are yet works of art of deep and lasting import,
and a masterly execution which is all the more In painting the nude, as in painting a landscape, a
remarkable in that it is ever more and more made thousand artists will see a thousand aspects of the
subservient to the spiritual conception. reality. Painting the same model, Ernest Laurent

Years of analysis for the sake of a little synthesis would find his fancy captured by the delicious
—here is another phrase which sums up the artist's seductiveness of feminine grace, and would paint
practice. Looking at the Deuils, his pictures of the luminous flesh of the woman as he would
mourning, even the most careless-hearted find paint the tender petals of a rose; Gaston La
themselves compelled to reflect upon the real Touche would show us all the brilliant beauty of
significance and deep seriousness of human life. the model in a decorative arabesque ; Charles

In these Breton pictures we find mirrored the Cottet, if in his real mood, would pierce with the
true character and the profound philosophy of the eye of his inner consciousness through the graceful
artist. Deeply moved at the spectacle of the envelope to search out the real character of the
sorrows and miseries of humanity, himself in being, constrained by humble necessities of exist-
solitary and meditative mood, he expresses his ence, delicate, ephemeral, menaced by age and
thoughts upon the world and life by means of his final dissolution, feeling in all her frame sorrow
art. By means of masses, lines, and
colour he builds up his conceptions just
as a Pascal in his Pensees expresses the
hollowness of human effort, first by little
phrases carefully thought out, revised
and subjected to a process of close criti-
cism—which may be likened to Cottet's
studies—in order finally and at leisure
little by little to compose a masterly
page which shall shed new light and
open new windows upon the vanity of
human pleasures and joys.

So evidently are these qualities of
slow meditation, of deep observation, ot
wide sympathy, and of severe, uncom-
promising technique the fundamental
characteristics of Charles Cottet, that
he has never succeeded in producing
a really moving work save when he has
sought to transcribe some eternal senti-
ment. Instance his Egyptian pictures.
Certainly they are all exceedingly fine,
and more than one master might be
proud of having painted them ; but
incontestably the best among these
paintings is the Marchands d'Huile
(TAssiont* The longing for home, the
calm, resigned sadness of these immobile

* Reproduced in colourin " Representative
Art of our Time," published by The Studio

in 1903. -'jeune bretonne" by charles cottet

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