James Tissot
James Tissot (actually Jacques Joseph Tissot ; born October 15, 1836 in Nantes , † August 8, 1902 in Buillon ) was a French painter and graphic artist . Known above all for his portraits in Victorian England in the 1870s, the artist devoted himself mainly to religious themes in his late work.
Life
Originally from a wealthy family in Nantes Jacques Joseph Tissot came at the age of 19 years to Paris and began his training as a painter at the École des Beaux-Arts , where he at Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe studied . In Paris, he also met Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. Degas made a portrait of Tissot in 1867. In 1859 he exhibited for the first time in the Salon de Paris . His painting Rencontre de Faust et de Marguerite , shown in the Salon in 1861 , a motif from the tragedy Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , was immediately purchased by the French state for the Musée du Luxembourg and is now in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay . Tissot established himself in the 1860s as a successful painter of the Parisian upper class, but also turned to the representation of live women. His series La Femme a Paris is one of these motifs.
After participating in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, Tissot joined the Paris Commune and was forced to leave France after its suppression. In May 1871 he fled to London, where he settled in St. John's Wood and Anglicized his first name in James. Here he lived from 1876 with his Irish lover Kathleen Newton, a divorced woman with two children, which was against the moral standards in Victorian England . Kathleen Newton became Tissot's muse and model of choice .
In the 1870s he produced numerous contemporary genre pictures and portraits of the English upper class, with which he enjoyed great success. Under the influence of James McNeill Whistler and Alphonse Legros , he also devoted himself to etching , a technique he studied with Francis Seymour Haden . He also drew cartoons for the British magazine Vanity Fair . He declined an invitation from Degas to take part in the first group exhibition of the Impressionists in 1874 and did not return to Paris until 1876, where his works were widely acclaimed. In 1880 he founded the Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers with Haden, Legros and other artists in order to establish etching and engraving as recognized art forms.
In 1882, the 28-year-old Kathleen Newton committed suicide. Just five days after her death, Tissot finally moved back to Paris. He later sold his London house to his friend Lawrence Alma-Tadema . As an established artist, he regularly exhibited his works in Paris, with increasing success. He moved among the Parisian high society and, for example, counted the Goncourt brothers among his friends.
First plunged into a personal crisis by the death of his beloved, Tissot turned to spiritualism and was particularly influenced by the medium William Eglinton (1858–1933). From 1886, Tissot concentrated primarily on religious topics. In the following years he toured Palestine several times and created a series with illustrations of the Old Testament . In 1896 he exhibited 350 graphics on the life of Christ in Paris , which were later published in two volumes.
Works in public collections (selection)
| image | Title (year of creation) | Size, material | collection |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Margaret in the Church (around 1861) |
50.2 cm × 75.5 cm oil on canvas |
National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin |
|
Two sisters (1863) |
210 cm × 136 cm oil on canvas |
Musée d'Orsay in Paris |
|
Portrait of Mlle LL (1864) |
124 cm × 99.5 cm oil on canvas |
Musée d'Orsay in Paris |
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|
Self-portrait (around 1865) |
49.8 cm × 30.2 cm oil on wood |
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco , Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco |
|
Young Ladies Looking at Japanese Objects (1869) |
70.5 cm × 50.2 cm oil on canvas |
Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati |
|
The Dreamer (Summer Evening) (1871) |
34.9 cm × 60.3 cm oil on canvas |
Musée d'Orsay in Paris |
|
On the Thames. A Heron (1871/72) |
92.7 cm × 60.3 cm oil on canvas |
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis |
|
The Captain's Daughter (1873) |
104.8 cm × 72.4 cm oil on canvas |
Southampton City Art Gallery in Southampton |
|
The Last Evening (1873) |
72.4 cm × 102.9 cm oil on canvas |
The Guildhall Art Gallery in London |
|
London Visitors (around 1874) |
160 cm × 114 cm oil on canvas |
Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo |
|
Ball on Shipboard (around 1874) |
84.1 cm × 129.5 cm oil on canvas |
Tate Gallery of British Art in London |
|
Hush! (around 1875) |
73.7 cm × 112.2 cm oil on canvas |
Manchester Art Gallery in Manchester |
|
Captain Frederick Gustavus Burnaby (around 1875) |
49.5 cm × 59.7 cm oil on canvas |
National Portrait Gallery , London |
|
Portrait of Miss Lloyd (1876) |
91.4 cm × 50.8 cm oil on canvas |
Tate Gallery of British Art in London |
|
A Passing Storm (around 1876) |
76.8 cm × 99.7 cm oil on canvas |
Lord Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton |
|
October (1877) |
216 cm × 108.7 cm oil on canvas |
Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal in Montreal |
|
Hide and Seek (1877) |
73.4 cm × 53.9 cm oil on panel |
National Gallery of Art in Washington DC |
|
Seaside (around 1878) |
87.5 cm × 61 cm oil on canvas |
Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland |
|
The Ball (1880) |
90 cm × 50 cm oil on canvas |
Musée d'Orsay in Paris |
|
A Woman of Ambition (1883-85) |
142 cm × 101.6 cm oil on canvas |
Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo |
|
The Shop Girl (1883-85) |
146.1 cm × 101.6 cm oil on canvas |
Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto |
|
Women of Paris, The Circus Lover (1883-85) |
147.2 cm × 101.6 cm oil on canvas |
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston |
|
The Artists' Wives (1885) |
146 cm × 101 cm oil on canvas |
Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk |
literature
- Cyrille Sciama: James Tissot et ses maîtres . Somogy Édition d'Art, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-85056-923-2 .
- Nancy Rose Marshall, Malcolm Warner: James Tissot: Victorian life, modern love . Yale University Press, New Haven 1999, ISBN 0-300-08173-1 .
- Christopher Wood: Tissot . Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1986, ISBN 0-297-78930-9 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tissot, James |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tissot, Jacques Joseph (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French painter and printmaker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 15, 1836 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nantes |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 8, 1902 |
| Place of death | Buillon |