TitleDaniel Cottier
Artist
Olin Levi Warner
(1844 - 1896)
Date1878
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 11 × 6 × 6 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, May 5, 1890
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number128-S
Label TextIn May 1890, when Warner submitted an unnamed bust as his Academician diploma presentation, he did so with the reservation that he intended to replace it at a later date with "something of more importance." This self-depreciatory "tag" was frequently attached to diploma works by mid-century electees--but rarely remembered. As there is no further mention in the Academy's records of any replacement, it must be assumed that this bust of Cottier was Warner's initial presentation. His implication that the work was somehow unimportant may have referred to its being less than life size, or that it was a portrait and not an ideal conception, or simply been a device to ward off a harsh judgement by the Council.Cottier was born in 1838 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was trained as a glass-stainer and, in 1869, established in London his own decorating firm, Cottier and Company, Art Furniture Makers, Glass and Tile Painters. He soon expanded his interests to the buying and selling of French and Dutch paintings in England and America. A branch of his business opened in New York in 1873, and Cottier soon became known in America as a patron of artists, especially those that were having difficulties. His gallery on Fifth Avenue was the site, in 1875, of an exhibition of works by John La Farge, William Morris Hunt, and others, that had been rejected by the Academy jury for its annual exhibition. In the annals of American art history it is with Albert Pinkham Ryder that Cottier is most associated, having been his friend and dealer until Cottier's early death in 1891.
Warner probably met Cottier in 1877. The dealer gave him a room in his offices to use as a studio. Warner began his bust of Cottier in the latter part of that year, probably on a commission from the dealer, himself. As George Gurney has pointed out, the bust was well received by the critics when it appeared in the Academy annual of 1878, and their published comments represented what must have been the first important critical attention Warner received. The wit and wisdom for which the subject was known are apparent in the expression given to the piece by the sculptor. Indeed, the bust is imbued with a sense of Warner's affection and gratitude for Cottier, his earliest and most generous patron.
Nine examples of this piece are recorded in Gurney's catalogue raisonn‚. One of these, which was in the collection of Charles E. S. Wood of Portland, Oregon, at the time, was exhibited at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.
