Mourning at Ouessant (Brittany)

Like many contemporaries, the French painter Charles Cottet was attracted to authentic life in Brittany, where he stayed for several weeks almost every year from 1885 onwards. He derived his themes from the fishing life on the islands of Sein and Ouessant off the Breton coast. In the painting Mourning in Ouessant, which is also known as Bad News, a young woman hides her face in her arms. In front of her on the table is a letter announcing the death of a loved one. The helplessness lies in her posture but also in the expression of the girl flanking her. In Cottet's work from the 1890s onwards there are repeated scenes of grieving fishermen's wives and orphans, the mourning atmosphere being emphasised by the dominant dark colour scheme. Cottet never depicted the death of the fishermen themselves, but in his paintings he did make allusions to the fatality of their existence.