James Tissot’s Anglo-French stories: 2, to England and return
When the French painter James Tissot arrived in London in the summer of 1871, he had just a hundred francs to his name, and had left his reputation behind. He was soon earning more than enough to pay the bills, through his paintings of elegant women in fashionable scenes. He also resumed his narrative series, embarking on his first set in a tavern on the bank of the River Thames in London, probably in Rotherhithe or Wapping.
James Tissot (1836-1902), An Interesting Story (c 1872), oil on wood panel, 59.7 x 76.6 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Wikimedia Commons.
The first of those to be exhibited was An Interesting Story from about 1872, which set the pattern. It’s the late eighteenth century, and an old soldier is telling one (or more) pretty young women interminable and incomprehensible stories about his military career, with the aid of charts spread out on the table. In this case, the word interesting is ironic to everyone except the veteran.
James Tissot (1836–1902), The Tedious Story (c 1872), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.
In The Tedious Story (c 1872), there can be no doubt the young woman has drifted off into a world of her own, one far away from the veteran’s charts.
James Tissot (1836–1902), Bad News (The Parting) (1872), oil on canvas, 68.6 × 91.4 cm (27 × 36 in), National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales. Wikimedia Commons.
Tissot moved the exterior location further up-river for his Bad News (The Parting) (1872). The soldier is now young, and has just been recalled to duty, to leave the two young women who appear as heartbroken as he does. In the centre of the painting, a small boat full of uniformed soldiers is in transit, presumably coming to take this soldier away with them. He again returns to the enduring theme of loss and separation.
James Tissot (1836–1902), Too Early (1873), oil on canvas, 71 × 102 cm, The Guildhall Art Gallery, London. Wikimedia Commons.
In contrast, Too Early (1873) is an insightful social comedy: this group has arrived at the soirée on time, when social convention is always to be late, so you aren’t the first to arrive. The four guests are embarrassed, and don’t know what to do, so they stand prominently in the middle of the empty floor while the hostess prepares the musicians, and the host waits idly at the door.
James Tissot (1836-1902), The Prodigal Son in Modern Life: The Departure (c 1882), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.
The first of the four paintings in his series The Prodigal Son in Modern Life, The Departure (c 1882) is set in another of his favourite waterside haunts along the Thames. The windows are now grimy, and the light filtered through the smoke of the city. Father, an elderly man, sits giving his younger son advice, having filled that son’s wallet with his share of inheritance. Bags are already packed and ready to go, and under the table a kitten seems to be leaving its litter too. Behind the younger son, one petal has fallen from the vase of nasturtiums. To the left, the older son stares with disappointed disinterest out towards the river. A sister (or perhaps the older brother’s wife) looks up from her sewing towards father and son.
The next two paintings take the younger son out to Japan, for clear allusions to immoral conduct, then to the prodigal son’s return on board a ship carrying pigs and cattle.
James Tissot (1836–1902), The Prodigal Son in Modern Life: The Fatted Calf (c 1882), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.
The final painting, The Fatted Calf (c 1882), shows the prodigal son sharpening a knife for carving the roast joint of meat concealed under the silver platter on the table. The older brother has just climbed up from a boat on the river, where his friends remain, and is arguing with their father as to why his younger brother should be welcomed back with a ‘fatted calf’. There are other cues carefully placed in this painting: climbing on the trellis are nasturtiums, the flowers securely clustered together again. The mother strokes a dog, a symbol of fidelity, and the prodigal son appears to have gained a pretty female partner too.
This series was first exhibited as the centrepiece of his one-man exhibition in the Dudley Gallery, London, in 1882. He finally won a gold medal for it at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889.
In the middle of the 1870s, Tissot had begun an intimate relationship with his Irish model, Kathleen Newton. She was a divorcee with a family of her own, but his Catholic faith was a barrier to their marriage. She developed tuberculosis in about 1880, and died in his arms in late 1882. He moved back to Paris, where he painted his largest series yet, fifteen canvases on the theme of the Woman of Paris.
James Tissot (1836-1902), Women of Sport (The Amateur Circus) (1883-5), oil on canvas, 147.3 x 101.6 cm, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons.
Women of Sport (The Amateur Circus) from 1883-5 must be among the strangest of this set, here showing many ‘modern women’ being entertained by scantily clad male trapeze artists.
In 1885, Tissot re-discovered his Catholic faith, and embarked on the most ambitious project of his career, to paint the whole of the life of Jesus Christ in more than 350 gouache paintings. This coincided with some experiments with the spirit world, and efforts to contact his dead partner.
Over the next decade, Tissot travelled to research locations and details of the period, and started this enormous task. In the spring of 1894, 270 of his paintings were exhibited in Paris to massive public acclaim. This show visited London in 1896, and toured America in 1898. The whole series of 350 paintings was then published, first in Paris then overseas, in a series of editions lasting until 1910. Critical views were mixed at best, but this was the greatest commercial success of Tissot’s career.
James Tissot (1836-1902), Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray (1886-1894), opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, 28.9 × 15.9 cm, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY. Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum, via Wikimedia Commons.
Despite the sheer effort and quantity involved, many of his images are innovative and artistic rather than being simply illustrative. Above is his account of Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray, and below is his provocative view of What Our Lord Saw from the Cross. His originals are now in the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
James Tissot (1836-1902), What Our Lord Saw from the Cross (1886-1894), opaque watercolor over graphite on gray-green wove paper, 24.8 × 23 cm, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY. Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum, via Wikimedia Commons.
In his final years, Tissot worked on a series showing scenes from the Old Testament, of which he had completed almost a hundred when he died suddenly in 1902. Within a year, his paintings had collapsed in value, and by the 1920s he had been largely forgotten.
References
English translation of Tissot’ book, fully illustrated: volume 1, volume 2.
Dolkart JF (ed) (2009) James Tissot, the Life of Christ, Brooklyn Museum and Merrell. ISBN 978 1 8589 4496 8.
Marshall NR & Warner M (1999) James Tissot, Victorian Life / Modern Love, Yale UP. ISBN 978 0 300 08173 2.
Wood C (1986) Tissot, Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978 0 297 79475 2.
