Pierre-Auguste Cot

Overview

Pierre-Auguste Cot (Bédarieux, 17 February 1837 – Paris, 1883), French academic painter, pupil of Léon Cogniet, Alexandre Cabanel and William Bouguereau; Salon debut 1863, chevalier of the Légion d'honneur 1874, a fashionable portraitist, best known for Le Printemps (1873) and L'Orage (1880), both in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (en.wikipedia "Pierre Auguste Cot"; Metropolitan Museum Journal 14, 1979). His death date is given as 2 August 1883 in most sources, 19 June 1883 by the BnF record (not resolved).

Relevance to Marie

• January 1881, Julian's atelier. «Entrée en fonctions de M. Cot, qui va alterner avec Tony» (090.0593, 15 January 1881): he becomes the second visiting professor of the women's atelier, taking alternate months with Tony Robert-Fleury («le mois de Cot», 090.0620). Marie is reluctant to take advice from «ce faiseur de tableaux à mettre en gravures coloriées» with his «genre gracieux» (090.0595), puts him at «bien quarante-sept ans» (he was 43) and finds him «bon enfant» (090.0597). On 22 January his first corrections of L'Atelier Julian are «des choses insignifiantes» and she calls Tony in instead: «Cot pour moi, ça n'existe pas» (090.0642–0644).
• Salon juror. In May 1881 Julian tells her that only Cot was willing to support her picture for an award (091.0628); in May 1883 she finds him «le plus aimable des hommes, son talent un instant à la mode n'a aucune importance mais il est membre du jury et très bon» (099.0600).

References in Diary

• First mentioned: 1881-01-15 (090.0593)
• 1881-01-17 (090.0620); 1881-01-22 (090.0642–0644); 1881-05-14 (091.0628); 1883-05-25 (099.0600)

Sources

• en.wikipedia, "Pierre Auguste Cot"; Metropolitan Museum Journal 14 (1979), "Pierre Auguste Cot's The Storm"; data.bnf.fr record 14971968.
• Mon Journal t.14 (L'Âge d'Homme), index «Cot (M.), peintre : 65, 67, 69, 131».