James Tissot: Victorian Life / Modern Love

James Tissot: Victorian Life / Modern Love

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

September 22 - November 28, 1999

Musée du Québec, Québec

December 16, 1999 - March 12, 2000

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

March 25 - July 2, 2000

James Tissot: Victorian Life/Modern Love is the first major US retrospective in 30 years of the French artist James Tissot (1836-1902). Comprising approximately 40 paintings, 37 prints, and 20 watercolors and gouaches on loan from collections from around the world, the exhibition constitutes the most complete representation of James Tissot’s work in this country and celebrates his notable return to both popular and scholarly favor in recent years. The exhibition is organized by The American Federation of Arts and the Yale Center for British Art. 

Guest curator Malcolm Warner, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Yale Center for British Art, has arranged the exhibition into six thematic sections: Historical Subjects, Modern Life in France, Modern Life in Britain, Prints, La Femme à Paris, and Biblical Illustrations.

James Tissot gives prominence to the wry and urbane scenes of Victorian life for which the artist is best known. The exhibition presents a selection of James Tissot’s finest works with particular emphasis on his years in London, where he lived from 1871 to 1882. The paintings showcase his keen observations of the manners and fashions of his times. With remarkable technical virtuosity, he gently mocked what he admired, reveling in recording the minute details of contemporary finery.

In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Mr. Warner writes, "At the heart of James Tissot’s work as an artist lies the idea of the modern, that which makes the present time distinct in appearance and character from the past." In this setting, he portrayed the nuances of modern love: the drama of attraction, flirtation, passion, and loss, and the gestures through which they were expressed in Paris and London society.

James Tissot left London and returned to France in 1882, following the death of his beloved companion and favorite model, Kathleen Newton. Between 1883 and 1885, he created a series of fifteen large paintings titled La Femme à Paris. Like the canvases he created in London, these paintings hint at amorous intrigue while depicting scenes from the lives of Parisian women.

In 1886, still mourning the death of Mrs. Newton, Tissot experienced a vision of Christ and, consequently, a deepening of his religious ardor. From this turning point until his death, Tissot devoted himself to creating hundreds of works in a variety of mediums illustrating biblical stories. With their combination of mysticism and realism, these works struck a powerful chord with the public and were immensely popular in both exhibitions and in book form in Europe and North America.

While Tissot is not the kind of artist who features largely in general histories of art, his work is admired, studied, and collected all over the world, sometimes with cult-like devotion. According to Mr. Warner, the exhibition is designed to "present Tissot on his own terms, to bring out the intelligence, the inventiveness, and the humor that make him such a highly enjoyable artist."

JAMES TISSOT

Victorian Life/Modern Love

Published by the Yale Center for British Art 

and The American Federation of Arts

PUBLICATION - A fully illustrated catalogue, written by Malcolm Warner and Tissot scholar Nancy Rose Marshall accompanies the exhibition. James Tissot: Victorian Life/Modern Love is published by the Yale Center for British Art and The American Federation of Arts in association with Yale University Press, London. 208 pages, 9 x 10", 96 color and 31 black-and-white illustrations.

THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

41 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10021

afaweb.org

J.J. Tissot, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto - Prints from the Gotlieb Collection

J.J. Tissot

Prints from the Gotlieb Collection

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

June 20 - October 20, 1996

The Art Gallery of Ontario presents a selection of exquisite prints and paintings by French artist Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902). J.J. Tissot: Prints from the Gotlieb Collection celebrates the recent donation of the most comprehensive, privately owned Tissot print collection in the world. This exhibition marks the first time these works will be officially shown since they were donated to the Gallery by Allan Gotlieb, former ambassador to the United States, and his wife Sondra, in 1994-95.

Compiled over a 35-year period, the collection contains approximately 150 hand-touched trial proofs, multiple states, inked variations and unique impressions on vellum, Japanese and handmade papers, and is one of the most important gifts of prints ever made to a Canadian institution. The Gotliebs donated ninety percent of their world-renowned collection and ten percent was purchased by the Marvin Gelber Fund.

"Sondra and I are delighted that the exquisite works of an artist who has been an inspiration and joy to us for decades will be on view in this dramatic exhibition, and may now be studied by visitors to the AGO for years to come," said Allan Gotlieb.

J.J. Tissot: Prints from the Gotlieb Collection, which toured the U.S., Britain, Ireland and Holland in 1991 under the aegis of Art Services International, will be enhanced at the AGO by six paintings, four of which are on loan from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Albright-Knox Gallery, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and an anonymous lender. The exhibition will also be available for viewing on the Gallery's Web site at http://www.AGO.on.ca, continuing to make AGO exhibitions available to a wider audience. 

"We are honoured that Allan and Sondra Gotlieb chose to give their marvellous collection to the Art Gallery of Ontario," said Gallery Director Maxwell Anderson, "and we are deeply grateful to both the Marvin Gelber Fund and The Tecolote Foundation for their assistance."

Born and trained in France, Jacques-Joseph Tissot fled to London in 1871 to escape political reprisal in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War. A friend of James McNeill Whistler, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, Tissot was one of the most successful artists of the late 19th century. Blending French realist and impressionist elements, he imbued Victorian subjects with continental sophistication. Tissot was also a leading figure in the etching revival of the 1860s, wielding his etching needle with a firm hand to create strong contrasts of black and white. He and his fellow artist friends were followers of the realist Gustave Courbet, finding inspiration in subjects from everyday life.

Tissot's prints, even more so than his sumptuous paintings, frequently incorporate the underlying psychodramas focusing on the social status of women and the dynamics of the relationships between the sexes. His enigmatic visual narratives invite the viewer's interpretation.

J.J. Tissot: Prints from the Gotlieb Collection will be displayed in two galleries, one designed to evoke the feeling of Tissot's London garden and the other to evoke London and Paris interiors of the 1870s and 1880s. The Victorian period is further suggested by the inclusion of 19th-century clothing and accessories, on loan from the Textile Department of the Royal Ontario Museum.

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Katharine Lochnan, the AGO's senior curator of prints and drawings. 

"Tissot made a very significant contribution to the art of the 19th century," said Katharine Lochnan. "His work is not only very beautiful, it is a source of information about the visual appearance and social mores of Victorian London and the Paris of the Third Republic. It is especially appropriate that the AGO is mounting this stellar exhibition, since 30 years ago the AGO launched the Tissot revival with a pioneering exhibition. Those who like the work of Manet, Degas and Whistler will find much to admire in Tissot."

A version of this exhibition will tour to selected galleries in Ontario.

AGO - ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario

www.ago.on.ca