Several works by Charles Cottet acquired by Brest

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27/4/23 - Acquisitions - Brest, Musée des Beaux-Arts - "It is the sea that leads, at sunset, this long cortege of black mantises, like a procession of widows, towards the distant bell tower where Low Mass sounds; It is for the sea, no doubt, that all along the coasts, like mysterious lighthouses bearing in their hearth a religious and mystical significance, these "Feux de la Saint-Jean", grouping all the people of the village around their spangles and sparks, as if in a ritual act of some indeterminate cult, a cult transmitted from generation to generation by the indecipherable runes of the popular imagination, the old sailors and the young men, the grandmothers in their big mantles with a priestly air, the girls and the children, all gathered, dreamy, hypnotised, seeming to read and see in the crackling tongues and flames, while in the distance, on the edge of the darkened sea, other mysterious lights respond [1]". These words by Léonce Bénédite, written in 1911 on the occasion of the exhibition of Charles Cottet’s works at the Galerie Georges Petit, are perfectly suited to describe the two latest acquisitions of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest.


1. Charles Cottet (1863-1925)
In the Land of the Sea. Nuit de la Saint-Jean, 1901
Huile sur toile - 150.4 x 192.7 cm
Brest, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo : Didier Olivré
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The first is a large-scale painting entitled In the Land of the Sea. Nuit de la Saint-Jean which Cottet exhibited at the 1901 Salon (ill. 1); it was purchased from the heirs of a Brest collector, Dr Ronan Taburet, who died in 2022. This acquisition was made with the support of the FRAM (Regional Funds for Museums Acquisitions), the Mécénat Bretagne and the Association des Amis du musée. The second is an etching, Evening Service or Low Mass in Winter which shows Ouessantines, black silhouettes without faces who hurry towards the church (ill. 2). It was offered by the Mécénat Bretagne, which bought it in the Ader sale of 25 November 2022.


2. Charles Cottet (1863-1925)
Evening Service or Low Mass in Winter (Ouessant), c. 1905-1910
Aquatint - 40 x 52.7 cm
Brest, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo : Didier Olivré
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Born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Charles Cottet had a passion for Brittany, where he stayed regularly between 1886 and 1913, especially in Camaret and on the island of Ouessant. He described the boats with their vivid canvases and the moods of the sea as well as the hard life of farmers and sailors. The painter travelled to Italy, Egypt and around Lake Geneva, but it was his Breton paintings that made him famous. The Brest museum, which holds some forty of his works, is showcasing his two latest acquisitions in an exhibition entitled "Charles Cottet au pays d’Ouessant", which has just opened and will run until September. The drawings, prints and paintings brought together show the creative process of the artist who multiplied preparatory sketches and tirelessly reworked the same subjects in different versions and different techniques, painting, pastel, engraving. The print Evening Service is based on a painting in the Petit Palais (ill. 3). Cottet would also have used this scene to illustrate André Suarès’ L’Émeraude en Bretagne.


3. Charles Cottet (1863-1925)
Low Mass in Winter (Brittany)
Oil on canvas - 155 x 195 cm
Paris, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
Photo : RMN-GP/Agence Bulloz
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4. Charles Cottet (1863-1925)
"Feux de la Saint-Jean", sketch
Oil on canvas - 74 x 93 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Photo : RMN-GP /S. Maréchalle
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The painting In the Land of the Sea translates the reverence of a vigil in Ouessant on the evening of St John’s Day. The artist obviously plays on the contrast between light and shadow, the faces caressed by the trembling glow of the orange flames are those of the children, while the older ones, in the twilight of their lives, remain in darkness. The Musée d’Orsay owns an oil study for this composition (ill. 4); it also has a large triptych from 1898, also entitled At the Land of the Sea, which evokes death and whose three panels are Those who are leaving The Meal of Farewells Those who remain. Cottet thus painted a whole series of canvases illustrating the harsh condition of sailors and their families, whose lives are marked by grief. The theme of the "Feux de la Saint-Jean" also recurs repeatedly in his paintings, drawings and prints.


5. Charles Cottet (1863-1925)
Green night in Camaret, 1894
Oil on canvas - 90 x 110.2 cm
Brest, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo : Didier Olivré
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Famous in his time, forgotten later, a friend of the Nabis, and considered a member of the "black band", Cottet remains an unclassifiable artist who leans both towards a certain naturalism, in the wake of Courbet, in opposition to Impressionism, but also towards Symbolism with compositions impregnated with mystery that suggest a truth hidden behind appearances. The painting La Tristesse, kept in Rennes, belongs to these two currents, embodied by a naked woman, dead or asleep.


6. Charles Cottet (1863-1925)
Mourning, 1899
Pastel and chalk on cardboard - 54.5 x 66.5 cm
Brest, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo : Didier Olivré
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The Brest museum has acquired several works by the master in recent years: in 2018 Pierre Maillard, a Parisian art dealer and collector, gave him a canvas entitled Green Night at Camaret painted in 1894 (ill. 5). In 2020, a drawing wa donated, Camaret la pointe du Toulinguet, a preparation for a painting kept at the Petit Palais in Geneva. Finally, in 2021, the museum bought Mourning in pastel and chalk (ill. 6) from the collection of Dr Ronan Taburet.

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