cap and a Japanese
obi-style sash. Sometime after 1862, Tissot began to shift focus from his early medievalist styles to instead match English tastes for narrative paintings of Victorian life and society. He quickly gained success among British audiences and was lauded for his photorealistic, narrative style of art that combined meticulous training with an impressionistic use of color and value. Tissot came to maintain a wide social sphere in light of his success and lifestyle, including
Oscar Wilde,
James Abbott Whistler, and
Edgar Degas. Degas shared many of his cultural interests as Tissot's mentee, notably producing a portrait of Tissot in which he is sitting below a Japanese screen hanging on the wall. Tissot led a tumultuous life outside of painting, fighting in the
Franco-Prussian War as part of the improvised defence of Paris; First by joining two companies of the
Garde Nationale and later as part of the radical
Paris Commune, though he is believed to have only joined the latter to protect his own belongings rather than for shared ideology. Either because of the radical political associations of serving as a
Communard or because of better opportunities, he left Paris for London in 1871. Having already worked as a caricaturist for
Thomas Gibson Bowles, the owner of the magazine
Vanity Fair, as well as exhibited at the Royal Academy, Tissot arrived with established social and artistic connections in London. Tissot used the name
Coïdé in the magazine from 1869 to 1873. Tissot's pre-war caricaturist work with
Vanity Fair included contributions to
Sovereigns,
Alexander II of Russia, or
Wilhelm I of Germany, depicting the latter two in particular as bloodthirsty conquerors.
Post-war career Tissot would further explore political themes of turmoil in Europe during the onset and aftermath of the war: The 1870 painting
La Partie Carrée evoked nostalgia for the period of the
French Revolution while hinting at the hedonism of the contemporary French aristocracy in portraying a pair of young women picnicking with two men, one in revolutionary military garb, while the work
Still on Top depicted the allegorical ascension of the
Austrian Habsburg and
North German war flags over other European flags, with title being thought to be a reference to the British ensign barely visible at the top of the canvas. Tissot produced
The Ball on Shipboard in 1874 with a similar subject, depicting a diverse range of contemporary national flags sewn together in a large awning. (
Les mangeoit pour soi refraischir devant souper), 1871 Once established in London, Tissot quickly developed his reputation as a painter of elegantly dressed women shown in scenes of fashionable life. By 1872 Tissot had bought a house in
St John's Wood, an area of London very popular with artists at the time. Writer and critic
Edmond de Goncourt sarcastically described "a studio with a waiting room where, at all times, there is iced champagne at the disposal of visitors" by 1874. a widespread artistic movement formed in response to the sudden influx of Japanese art, textiles, and curiosities into the European market as a result of the
forced opening of trade relations with Japan in 1853 and subsequent
Meiji Restoration in 1868. Printed Japanese art emphasized clarity, spaciousness, and boldness appealing to the
Ukiyo urban culture and Tissot came to regularly include popular Japanese artifacts and costumes in his pictures after being introduced to the subject by Whistler, additionally expressing stylistic influences in his use of composition and perspective.
Berthe Morisot visited him in London in 1874, and he travelled to Venice with
Édouard Manet at about the same time. He regularly saw Whistler, who influenced Tissot's Thames river scenes. Many of his depictions of contemporary life include hints or narratives of desire, vulgarity, and the complexity of sexual relationships, The work received criticism as "hard, vulgar, and banal" upon release, and some scholars have even suggested Tissot's selection of the
Calcutta for the painting's setting to be a deliberate play on the phrase
"" (
"What an arse you have" in French).
Portsmouth Dockyard, an 1877 variation on a painting titled
On The Thames (How Happy I Could Be with Either?), received similar accusations of immorality for its ambiguous depiction of what its predecessor's alternative title reveals to be a military man openly deciding between two potential suitresses.
Family life and bereavement In 1875 or 1876, Tissot met
Kathleen Newton, an Irish divorcee who became the painter's companion and frequent sitter. She quickly began an intimate relationship with Tissot, moving in as a housemate in 1877. The couple's marital status was uncertain, as Tissot's Catholic faith did not recognize her divorce and meant they could not opt for annulment without delegitimizing her previous children; however, they chose to live openly as husband and wife and their servants addressed Newton as "Madame Tissot". Newton is said to have called Tissot "Jimmie", while his pet names for her included "Kitty", "Petite Femme", and "Mavourneen" (an Irish term after "
Kathleen Mavourneen", a popular love song from the time). Tissot's paintings and prints of 1877–1881 included images of travel along the Thames or south coast and to Paris, but many focused on Newton relaxing and reading in the garden, or surrounded by visiting children. Around 1880–1881 she contracted
tuberculosis and Tissot portrayed her sitting well-wrapped outdoors, as fresh air was thought to have a curing effect. Newton succumbed to her illness in Tissot's arms on 9 November 1882, "with the ardent faith of a
neophyte and the silent resignation of a saint." After Kathleen Newton's death, Tissot returned to Paris. The last major exhibition of this era in Tissot's life took place in 1885, with a 15-painting series titled ''
(Fifteen Paintings on the Woman of Paris
), displayed at the Galerie Sedelmeyer. Unlike the genre scenes of fashionable women he painted in London, these paintings sought to represent different archetypes of women across many different classes and occupations, shown in professional and social scenes. The Shop Girl'' in particular seemed to return to Tissot's exploration of sexuality and gender, with one writer identifying depictions of desire and
baseness in the composition, while the series's wider inclusion of working class women outside of the household as subjects could have been seen as morally dubious at the time.
La Femme à Paris also solidified the influence of Japanese prints in Tissot's work, as he used unexpected angles and framing from that tradition to create a monumental context in the size of the canvases. File:James_Tissot_-_La_demoiselle_de_magasin_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg |
The Shop Girl, File:James Tissot - The Woman of Fashion.jpg|
The Woman of Fashion, File:James Tissot - The Ladies of the Cars.jpg|
The Ladies of the Cars, File:James Jacques Joseph Tissot - Women of Paris- The Circus Lover - Google Art Project.jpg |
The Circus Lover, 1885 File:James Tissot - A Woman of Ambition.jpg |
A Woman of Ambition, 1885 ==Late career==