Paysage provençal au grand pin

Reading the work

In the foreground a wind-shaped umbrella pine dominates the composition, its trunk bent like a spring; beyond it olive groves, cypresses and a Provençal village with a bell tower rise against bare hills. Cottet joins southern brightness to the nervous precision of the etching needle: parallel hatching for the shimmering air, dense tangles for the foliage. The whole breathes the classical tradition of the Mediterranean landscape – Cézanne’s country, translated into pure line.