James Tissot: Victorian Life/Modern Love

by Nancy Rose Marshall, Dr. Malcolm Warner

James Tissot (1836-1902), the wry and urbane observer of manners and fashions, painted scenes of Paris and London "society" that simmered with undercurrents of sexual drama. This beautifully illustrated book presents one hundred of Tissot`s paintings, prints, and watercolors representing each stage of his career. The authors consider Tissot`s themes, interests, and the influences on his work.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 1999

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was published in association with the exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art, Musee de Quebeck, and Albright-Knox Art Gallery. I would consider it a very informative book on the art of Tissot. While the book has a relatively short introduction to the life of Tissot (written by Malcolm Warner), it excels in presenting and discussing his art. The core of the book is the exhibition catalog, which presents 92 plates of Tissot’s paintings and graphics. Most of the paintings are presented full-size on a single page with the opposite page devoted to an extended “story” focused on the paintings. Moreover, artworks are grouped in sections, mostly based on periods of Tissot’s art (Costume Pieces, La Vie moderne,… On Shipboard..). Each section has a brief preface introducing this period or topic in Tissot’s art. All that is very interesting and no other book on Tissot goes into the same level of detail when discussing individual pieces.

Also, on the positive side, the quality of the publication is excellent (the book is printed in Singapore) – good paper, solid cover and binding, and excellent color. On the negative side, while the book provides excellent coverage of Tissot’s art with its 92 plates, a good fraction of these plates are etchings of corresponding oil paintings. It gives the idea about the artwork and it is interesting by itself, but it reduces the number of color plates in the book. For example, out of 7 “Parisiennes”, four are paintings, and three are etchings. It is also a bit small in format, so the scale of the paintings is smaller than in other books on Tissot (Woods and Buron) even though the space on the page is used reasonably well.

With its organization and number of etchings, the book is a good extension of the other books on Tissot. It complements rather than duplicates Wood’s narration and somewhat complements rather than duplicates larger scale color plates in Buron’s book

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! I thought about him for the first time in ages when I saw one of his paintings in Cleveland. This book goes into detail about his iconography.