The Storm by Cot: Two Lovers Under a Transparent Veil (1880)

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A young man and woman sprint through tall grass under a sheer, wind-blown cloth that barely counts as cover. Their bodies press together; the sky behind them darkens. In Pierre Auguste Cot's The Storm (La Tempete, 1880), weather is the excuse - intimacy is the subject.

Quick facts
Artist: Pierre Auguste Cot (1837-1883)
Date: 1880
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Notable fact: Commissioned by Catharine Lorillard Wolfe after the success of Cot's earlier Springtime; debuted at the Salon of 1880
Pierre Auguste Cot, The Storm (La Tempete), 1880
Pierre Auguste Cot, The Storm (La Tempete), 1880. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Sister Picture to Springtime

Cot's earlier Springtime delighted collector John Wolfe and helped prompt Catharine Lorillard Wolfe to commission this canvas. Both works center youthful couples at similar scale. Where spring is soft play, the storm is urgency: same charm, higher pulse.

Paul and Virginie - or Daphnis and Chloe?

At the Salon of 1880, viewers guessed narrative. Some saw Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie (1788), with its famous image of the pair sharing a lifted skirt as rain-shelter. Others preferred Longus's ancient romance of Daphnis and Chloe. Cot leaves the literary key slightly ambiguous; the painting needs only the shared veil and the shared flight.

Love as Makeshift Shelter

Academic polish - translucent drapery, idealized youth, careful light - wraps a simple idea: affection improvises protection when the world turns rough. The storm is metaphor as much as meteorology. Look once for the Salon sweetness. Look again for two people inventing cover out of almost nothing.

Own This Painting

Hang Cot's Storm - the running lovers, the thin veil, and shelter made of cloth and trust.

Shop This Print ->

Watch the video essay on @SapiensVerbum on YouTube.

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