Pierre-Auguste Cot's L'Orage or The Storm has long been regarded, at least by Americans aware of its presence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as a symbol of late nineteenth-century French academicism.
Pierre Auguste Cot (February 17, 1837 - July 1883) was born in Bédarieux, 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. From the 1870s, his popularity grew quickly.
He enjoyed the protection of the academic sculptor Francisque Duret, whose daughter he married, and of William Bouguereau, with whom he had also worked. In the 187os, he became a fashionable portraitist.
In 1874 he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He created several works of lasting popularity, including Le Printemps, featuring two young lovers sitting upon a swing, and The Storm.
Pierre-Auguste Cot’s painting The Storm tells a story of two lovebirds running from nature’s work. This painting shows many Visual Elements and Principles but the boldest would be color, emphasis/focal point, unity, simplicity, depth, and movement.
He died in Paris at the age of 46. He is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
His works including;
*Dionysia (1870), Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan
*Ophelia (1870)
*The Gypsy or La Bohémienne (1871)
*Spring or Le Printemps (1873), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
*The Storm or La Tempête (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
Pierre Auguste Cot: French painter of the Academic Classicism school
