Cot was born in 1837 in the southern regions of France. In 1863 at the age of 26, cot debuted at the salon. In 1883 he died at the age 46, leaving behind few paintings in his short career. He painted in the academism style which combined the intricate Neoclassic drafting style with the vibrant use of Romantic color. Cot was always trying to tell a story through careful consideration of his subjects body language and facial expressions, especially in the intensity with which he painted his subjects eyes. Typically most painters at this time depicted women with a sort of delicate expression, however cots works were made distinct by his rejection of the norm and his embrace of more pensive or distraught expressions.
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Throughout his works, Cot shows extraordinary attention to detail with incredibly clean blending, carefully planned out lighting featuring warm shadows. Arguably his two most famous and iconic works include Springtime and The Storm which both have incredibly detailed backgrounds, however for this piece specifically I want to turn away from making a fully detailed background and instead want to primary focus on the detail figure itself. |
Before starting my piece, I knew that doing a realistic portrait in acrylic paint was going to be a difficult task, so I decided to practice that sort of style on a smaller piece of gessoed canvass. Originally I had wanted my piece to emulate Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes, so I took a detail from the painting and tried my best to replicate it. I created a grid over the original, and mapped the grid over my gessoed piece, then I proceeded to sketch in the general blocks of feature. Next I started my painting. In the end result the dark side of the figures face is much darker than I had intended to depict, while the illuminated side is much lighter than the original. This made me realize I had to be more considerate of how powerful black can be in my actual work. |