French · Academic art
Pierre Auguste Cot
b. 17 February 1837, Bédarieux, Hérault — d. 2 August 1883, Paris
Pierre Auguste Cot (1837–1883) was a French academic painter, pupil of Cabanel and Bouguereau, best known for The Storm (1880) and Springtime (1873), both at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
1 work in the collection
Works by Pierre Auguste Cot
Pierre Auguste Cot was a French painter of the academic school whose reputation rests on two images of young lovers. The Storm (1880), owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, shows a couple running barefoot from a downpour under a billowing cloth; its companion in spirit, Springtime (1873), shows two lovers on a swing.
Life
Cot was born on 17 February 1837 in Bédarieux, in the Hérault department of Languedoc. He studied first at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, then in Paris under Léon Cogniet, Alexandre Cabanel and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, the leading academic painters of the day.
He made a successful debut at the Salon in 1863, and his popularity grew rapidly in the 1870s. The academic sculptor Francisque Duret was his patron and later his father-in-law, and Bouguereau remained a close friend, painting a portrait of Cot's daughter Gabrielle. Cot was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1874. He died in Paris on 2 August 1883, aged 46, and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery; a monument to him was raised in Bédarieux in 1892.
Style and key works
Cot painted in the polished academic manner of his teachers: smooth, invisible brushwork, idealized bodies and carefully lit drapery. Most of his output was portraiture. His imaginative figure paintings are fewer but far better known.
Springtime (Le Printemps), shown at the 1873 Salon, is privately owned but has long been on view at the Met. The Storm, shown at the 1880 Salon, may have been inspired by the novel Paul et Virginie (1788) by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, although the identification of the subject has been debated. Both remain popular as reproductions.
Cot also taught; his students included the American painters Ellen Day Hale and Anna Elizabeth Klumpke.
Where to see his work
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the place to see The Storm. For the tradition he worked in, see Academic art and famous paintings.
Questions & answers
What is Pierre Auguste Cot known for?
Cot is best known for two paintings of young lovers: Springtime (1873), showing a couple on a swing, and The Storm (1880), showing them running from a storm. Both can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Where is The Storm by Pierre Auguste Cot?
The Storm (1880) belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It shows a young couple running barefoot from a storm, sheltering under a billowing cloth.
Who taught Pierre Auguste Cot?
After training in Toulouse, Cot studied in Paris under Léon Cogniet, Alexandre Cabanel and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, three of the most influential academic painters of the Second Empire.