Charles-Alexandre Coëssin de la Fosse

The French painter and printmaker Charles-Alexandre Coëssin de la Fosse was born in Lisieux in 1829 and died in Paris in 1910. In Paris, he studied at the École des beaux-arts, first with François-Édouard Picot and then with Thomas Couture. He first presented his work at the Salon in 1857.

His work encompasses several genres: genre scenes, battle subjects and religious paintings, as well as mythological subjects. Episodes relating to the Chouans feature among his subjects, as shown by The Ambush; he also painted scenes of Catholic worship, including Procession around a Stone Cross. In The Ambush, insurgents and armed peasants wait in a sunken lane, in a scene that sets Chouans against Republicans. The Tambourine Player earned him a third-class medal at the 1873 Salon. He usually signed his works with the name “Coëssin”.

The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Lisieux holds two of his mythological works, Ariane abandonnée and Thésée et Ariane, the latter dated circa 1866. The Musée du Louvre holds a pen-and-black-ink drawing entitled Procession around a Stone Cross. Other paintings are held in the collections of the Musée Baron-Martin in Gray, including Departure of the Emigrés from the Shore of Mont St-Michel, and the Musée Massey in Tarbes, including Scene of the Pacification of the Vendée in 1795 – 9th Hussar, dated 1882.

Works recorded at auction

Dobiaschofsky

"Andromeda, Perseus and the monster Cetus".

Oil on canvas

Original catalogue wording

"Andromède, Persée et le monstre Cetus".
Öl auf Leinwand

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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