The Work of Cot and Renoir :: essays research papers

The nineteenth century produced a great number of art works from such artists as Pierre August Cot and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Two major themes in these works include images fabricated from the real world and mirror images of everyday situations in life. Cot produced a pair of star struck lovers sharing a moment together in a hidden dugout enclosed by trees and shrubs while Renior recreated a midsummer’s day with a family enjoying an outing downtown. Each of these painting possesses an iconography in which the artist has contrived within his mind as the main theme to his work. This image is not intended to influence the viewer’s individual observation, but to embellish the work’s particular symbolism. Cot was a wonderfully gifted painter who applied remarkable use of proportional status when creating a two-dimensional painting. The only disadvantage about Cot is that his name is not well known. When this occurs, an artist and his work lack the media voice it needs to posses in order to advance among the inflections of those who do the observing. Therefore personal information is difficult to come across. His work can be classified under representational art. This form of art uses natural images that look very much like images in the natural world. His portfolio of artwork has not received the noteworthy recognition it so deserves. The Storm, created in 1880, is his only painting to have received praise from the world of art. To showcase another masterpiece completed by Cot, I chose to compare and contrast the composition of Le Printemps . This was also created in the same era and was influenced by images fabricated from the real world. The composition of this painting is quite complete; it includes actual lines, organic shapes, and the illusion of light.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Le Printemps grants the subconscious mind to drift into a fantasy-like state and the illusion of mortality merges with the illusion of realism. Cot portrays the young couple on a swing as his major element. The entire picture is based upon this element and with actual lines, the ropes of the swing and the immediate surrounding environment are defined as background major elements. Two large ropes are attached to a small wooden plank, containing the man and woman. Indentations can be seen where the man is holding on and the illusion of movement is understood. For the environmental elements, the large tree symbolizes the relationship it has with the swing as well as the direction in which the couple is swaying.