Updated 13 May 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
Grief, a Victim of the Sea
| Date | 1908-09 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | oil on canvas |
| Size（cm） | 263 x 347 |
| Inscriptions | Signed and dated lower right: Ile-de-Sein 1908-09 / Ch. Cottet |
| Credit Line | Matsukata Collection |
| Standard ref. | M299 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1959-0039 |
Cottet entered this work in the 1908 Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. The painting depicts a drowning victim, returned to the port of Ile de Sein, where it is being laid out on a coffin. The upper half of the body has been left bare as the body is placed on a stretcher atop the coffin. Four figures, an old man with head bared in grief and three women who are probably the grieving mother, wife, and daughter of the deceased, are seen on the far side of the body. Several villagers are gathered on the left, waiting their turn to pray for the soul of this victim of the sea. The scene is set in a Breton village, a favorite locale for Cottet, and presents a sadly realistic rendering of a tragic scene. However, it is clear that Cottet depended on the traditional iconography of the Lamentation of Christ in his depiction of this tragic seaside village scene. The review of the 1908 Salon published in the Gazette des Beaux Arts was written by André Baunier, and he commented on the resemblance between this work and the Deposition from the Cross: "The nude corpse resembles the body of Christ being carried to the tomb, and the men and women surrounding the body resemble the sainted women and disciples aiding the Madonna." There are no elements surrounding this scene that portend of the tragedy, there are no traces of a storm, or battered boats or the bodies of other victims seen. Only this single death occurred. The linking of the simple death of a fisherman with the death of Christ makes the moment all the more solemn, all the more sacred. This painting is one of Cottet's masterpieces, and a later version of almost the same size was purchased by the French Government in 1912 and today is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 96)
Provenance
Purchased by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite or by himself, ca. May 1921 (Fr. 30,000) [see letter from Léonce Bénédite to Suzuki & Co., dated 23 May 1921, in the Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copy in NMWA curatorial file)]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.
Exhibition History
- 1908
- Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Salon de 1908, Paris, 0 1908 - 0 1908
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 74, col. repr.
- 2023
- 国立西洋美術館, The National Museum of Western Art, 18 March 2023 - 11 June 2023, cat. no. 95
Bibliography
- 1908
- Baunier, A. Les Salons de 1908. Gazette des Beaux-Arts. ser. 3, tome 39, 1908, pp. 467, 468, repr.
- 1928
- Aubert, L. -F. Peintures de Charles Cottet. Paris, 1928, repr. p. 19.
- 1961
- Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-56.
- 1979
- The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 51, repr.
- 1990
- The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 452.
- 2006
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 96, col. repr.
- 2009
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 96, col. repr.
- 2018
- The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 299, col. repr.
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 150-151, 361, cat. no. 74, col. repr.
- 2023
- La Bretagne source d'inspiration: regards de peintres français et japonais (exh. cat.). Hakamata, Hiroyo, ed. Tokyo, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, 2023, pp. 128-129, 211, cat. no. 95, col. repr.
- 2024
- Elsig, Frédéric; Lopes, Victor. De Bleu, de Blanc et de Rouge: Catalogue des Peintures Françaises du XIXe Siècle (1800-1918). Cinisello Balsamo (Milano), Silvana Editoriale, [2024], p. 508, fig. 4, repr.