Pierre Auguste Cot

Pierre Auguste Cot studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris and Institut supérieur des arts de Toulouse. Training under Léon Cogniet, Alexandre Cabanel and William-Adolphe Bouguereau is recorded. Gustan Le Sénéchal de Kerdréoret and Anna Elizabeth Klumpke are recorded as having studied under Pierre Auguste Cot. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is art. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Works named in the authority record are The Storm and Springtime. Work by Pierre Auguste Cot is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Appleton Museum of Art, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Béziers, Chimei Museum and Cooper Gallery. Distinctions recorded are Knight of the Legion of Honour.

• Name — Pierre Auguste Cot • Birth Name — Pierre Auguste Cot • Born — 17 February 1837 • Birthplace — Bédarieux, Hérault, France • Died — 2 August 1883 • Place of death — Paris, France • Resting Place — Père Lachaise Cemetery • Field — Painting • Movement — Academic Classicism • Works — Springtime (1873) The Storm (1880) • Awards — Chevalier of the Legion of Honour

• Illustration — Bouguereau's Gabrielle Cot, a portrait of Cot's daughter Cot was born in Bédarieux, Hérault, and initially studied at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse before going to Paris. He studied under Leon Cogniet, Alexandre Cabanel and William-Adolphe Bouguereau. In 1863 he made a successful debut at the Salon, and from the 1870s, his popularity grew quickly. Cot enjoyed the patronage of the academic sculptor Francisque Duret, whose daughter he married, and of Bouguereau, with whom he had also worked. Bouguereau painted a portrait of Cot's daughter, Gabrielle. Bouguereau had dined with the Cot family to celebrate Gabrielle's marriage to an architect named Zilin. The artist made a gift of the painting to the wife of Duret, Gabrielle's grandmother. Cot won various prizes and medals, and in 1874 was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He died in Paris at the age of 46. He is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

• Illustration — The Storm (1880) He created several works of lasting popularity, including Springtime, featuring two young lovers sitting upon a swing, and The Storm. Both these paintings are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; The Storm belongs to the museum while Le Printemps is owned privately. Cot also was renowned for his portraits, which made up the majority of his work. The more enduring figurative work, such as The Storm, is comparatively rare. Shortly after his death at the age of forty-six (2 August 1883), a subscription was undertaken for a commemorative monument to the artist, which was erected at Bédarieux in 1892.

• Dionysia (1870), Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan • Ophelia (1870) • The Gypsy or La Bohémienne (1871) • Springtime or Le Printemps (1873), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City • The Storm or L'Orage (1880), Metropolitan Museum of Art • The Reading Light or La Liseuse (about 1880) • Portrait of Madame Mas (1882) • Mireille (1882), Musée Fabre, Montpellier • Charity for My Sister, Wolverhampton Art Gallery

• Illustration — Ophelia, 1870 • Illustration — Girl with Basket of Oranges and Lemons, 1871 • Illustration — Springtime, 1873 • Illustration — Mireille Giving Alms at Saint-Trophime, 1882 • Illustration — Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Curing the Sick, 1883