James Tissot

James Jacque Joseph Tissot was a nineteenth century French painter whose style changed and evolved around the various stages of his life. Over the course of his career as an artist, James Tissot exhibited interest in the Middle Ages, nautical themes, fashionable society, Japanese prints, with the latter part of the artist’s lifetime largely defined by a rediscovery of Catholic values which had been highly imposed upon him as a youth. He was invited to exhibit with the Impressionists; an offer which Tissot declined, though he maintained close associations with several of the artists responsible for the movement through much of his career.

James Tissot was born in the port community of Nantes, France in 1836. The son of a successful drapery merchant and a hat designer, his parent’s respective professions catering to the fashion industry are thought to serve as the initial influence over the artist’s meticulous attention to detail with regard to women’s clothing in society-related paintings. The portion of his youth spent in Nantes is credited with encouraging the artist’s interest in nautical themes, frequently choosing to feature boats and shipping vessels in his paintings.

Though the decision wasn’t initially supported by his father, James Tissot had set his mind on pursuing a career as a painter by the age of 17. His decision was eventually accepted and, around age 20 Tissot set off for Paris to pursue an art education. He stayed with a friend of his mother’s, academic painter, Jules Elie Delaunay and studied in the studios of Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe. Like many of the great artists, Tissot spent much time developing his skills as a painter by copying the masterpieces housed at the Louvre.

During this period, Tissot would develop friendly associations with Whistler, Degas and Manet. In 1859, he met Henri Leys in Antwerp. The five Middle Ages-themed paintings comprising his first Salon exhibition that same year reflect the influence that Leys had upon Tissot’s style.

In 1871, Tissot moved to London where he purchased a home in St. Johns’s Wood. Not long after, he met Kathleen Newton, a divorcee (briefly married to Isaac Newton) who quickly became the love of his life and who would be his companion for the remainder of her own life, which was cut short by overdose (intended to circumvent Tissot’s anguish at her own suffering from tuberculosis) in 1882. The couple lived together, but never married, and Kathleen frequently modeled for him. Tissot is believed to be the father of Newton’s son, Cecil George Newton, born in 1876.

Following the death of his love, Tissot would experience a reawakening of his Catholic values and turn his attention toward paintings of a Biblical nature for the remainder of his life. This shift was somewhat controversial among his contemporaries at the time, but the paintings produced during this period would bring the artist his greatest financial success, as well as a great deal of recognition and international critical acclaim. As a part of this transition, Tissot made three trips to the Middle East from 1886-1896 to study the people and the landscape for accuracy in his artwork. He was working on a series of paintings illustrating the Old Testament at the time of his death in 1902.