Author Description

"James Tissot (French, 1836-1902) was one of the most intriguing artists of his era. Though invited by Edgar Degas to exhibit with the Impressionist circle, Tissot instead garnered exceptional critical and commerical success on his own in London and Paris, securing his international reputation. While he is best known for his keen observations of society life and fashion, Tissot also made hundreds of spiritual and religious works that have since provided visual motifs for artists and filmmakers working to this day. Rendered with incredible detail, his compositions offer lays of meaning to lend rich insights into the vibrant culture of fin-de-siècle Europe. Published on the occasion of a major exhibiton at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, 'James Tissot'--the first extensive monographic volume on the artist to be produced in more than twenty years--provides new perspectives on his oeuvre and reexamines his place in the canon of late nineteenth-century art. His achievements are contextualized in nearly twenty original scholarly essays that address the artist today, alongside more than 150 lavish reproductions of his most important creations. This catalogue also features recently rediscovered archival material, including previously unknown compositions selected from a photograph album of paintings made by the artist, and his personal sales notebook, which has been transcribed and annotated here for the first time. A robust chronology, a conservation study of his materials and techniqueas, and a group of photographs taken at his château in Buillon, France, round out this volume to provide a dynamic portrait of an artist who is prime for a reconsideration in the twenty-first century."