James Tissot: Victorian Life, Modern Love

Edited by Nancy Rose Marshall

Published by the American Federation of Arts and Yale Center for British Art

207 pages, 10.4 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches, 93 illustrations, cloth, ISBN 0300081731

Publication date: September 22, 1999

Description

James Tissot (1836–1902), the wry and urbane observer of manners and fashions, painted scenes from the life of “society” that simmer with undercurrents of sexual drama. Smiling at his characters’ vanities and foibles, Tissot revels in each detail of their finery, every sign of their savoir-faire. This beautiful illustrated book presents nearly 100 paintings, prints, and watercolors from every phase of Tissot’s career, including such signature paintings as The Ball on Shipboard, Hush! (The Concert), and London Visitors.

Nancy Rose Marshall and Malcolm Warner explore Tissot’s themes and interests and consider the influence on his work of Charles Baudelaire’s brilliant essay on the aesthetics of modernity, Le Peintre de la vie moderne. The artists examine how Tissot dealt with the ways of modern love in Paris and London in the later nineteenth century. The book accompanies an exhibition organized by the Yale Center for British Art and the American Federation of Arts, and shown at the Yale Center for British Art, the Musee du Quebec, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.