Portrait of Gabrielle Cot
16″ x 20″, Pastiche, after William Bouguereau
by Charles C. Clear III
SPRING BULL ART GALLERY on Bellevue Avenue in beautiful Newport, Rhode Island had their 29th Annual “Fakes and Forgeries” exhibit run from January 18, 2020 to February 28, 2020. It’s a very popular exhibit where Artists are asked to paint a forgery of a famous painting.
That was the first year that I participated in the Fakes and Forgeries Exhibit. I chose to paint the “Portrait of Gabrielle Cot” by the French Artist William Bouguereau, a painter that I admire very much. He painted the portrait in 1890. Gabrielle was the daughter of another French Artist, Pierre Auguste Cot, and Bouguereau gave it as a gift on the occasion of Gabrielle’s marriage to an architect named Zilin.
At the conclusion of the Show I was notified that my painting “Portrait of Gabrielle Cot” won the People’s Choice Award for 2020! The People’s Choice Award is where everyone who visits the Art Gallery over the course of the Show can vote on their favorite painting. The Show always has a lot of good paintings by very talented local Artists, so it was an honor to hear that my painting was chosen by the visitors to the Gallery!
Fast forward to December of 2020: The 30th Annual Fakes and Forgeries Exhibit was rapidly approaching. I decided to paint another masterpiece by William Bouguereau – a painting from 1899 titled “Reverie”, which features a little girl sitting on some steps. It seemed like it would be simple enough to paint, but as it turns out, it was a fairly ambitious piece. You can see this painting at this link.
UPDATE: This year the 31st Annual “Fakes and Forgeries” exhibit ran from January 22nd to February 27th, 2022. I didn’t have time to paint a new Fake or Forgery for the show, so I entered my “portrait of Gabrielle Cot” painting from 2020. Spring Bull Gallery notified me at the conclusion of the show that my painting won the People’s Choice Award for 2022! It’s an honor to receive this award THREE years in a row! Thanks to everyone who voted!
Charles C. Clear III
cc@oceanstateart.com