James Tissot, L’Ambigu Moderne
From the 23rd of June to the 13th of September 2020, the Musee d’Orsay presents the work of the French painter James Tissot in an exhibition entitled « Tissot, the ambiguous figure of modernity ». The exhibition invites us to look beyond appearances. Underneath a misleadingly classic and superficial surface, there is an art endowed with the subtlest modernity. The exhibition focuses on the contradictions of an artist so near yet so far from the Parisian avant-garde. More than 120 works of art – paintings, drawings, photographies – are gathered, with the ambition to enlighten us on the extraordinary journey of the artist, his most original paintings but also his greatest successes.
James Tissot escaped any easy categorisation. He was a cosmopolitan and a dandy, a craftsman experimenting with the latest technologies as well as a sharp businessman, a chronicler of the elegant and festive societies, a painter of high secrecy. But first and formost a changeable spirit. He evolved throughout the avant-garde but never claimed to adhere to her, following a path of its own. Naturalistic, academic or impressionist? He ultimately never could be categorised and that’s precisely what’s so fascinating about his life path and career, and precisely what’s underlined throughout the exhibition.
The exhibition displays a chronological order, from the first room where we discover a complete historical frieze of the artist’s life as well as a portrait of him painted by Edgar Degas in 1867. This portrait depicting the artist in a very peculiar position, as an introduction to the exhibition, clearly states that James Tissot was out of step. The overall arrangement of the exhibition enables the curators, Marine Kiessel and Paul Perrin, to highlight all the ambiguity and independence of that artist throughout every stage of his life.
Wandering from one room to another, from one stage of his life to another, we find ourselves immersed in the Japanese frenzy of the late 19th century, the parisian moundaine festivities, the radiant fashion industry between the 1880s and the 1910s, the macabre violence of the commune in 1871, the Victorian era’s high society, the spleen of sailors’ wives and daughters, the bovarysm of an intense love story with Kathleen Newton, the parisian vogue of siritualism and occultism and, ultimately, the conservative Catholic right. The works were chosen and placed to highlight these different life stages, in pastel green rooms respective to each period and separate by light white curtains. The golden threads of this unquestionably brilliant artist’s life – always faithful to himself – are his « passionate enthusiasm », craving for fabrics of all kind, and multiple sources of inspiration.
The exhibition includes four chronologically organised milestones.
The first section focuses on his enthusiasm for fabrics. Born with the name Jacques Joseph Tissot in Nantes, in 1836, he grows up in a family of successful drapery merchants. This particular environment influences his fascination for fabrics, costumes, and carpets. Soon acknowledged and supported as a talented artist by his wealthy relatives, he moves to Paris at the age of twenty. His earliest paintings, which we discover at the beginning of the exhibition, are very much inspired by great masters such as Cranach, Dürer, Holben, and the English Pre-Raphaelites. His accurate drawings and contrasting tones become well-known at the Salon of Paris. He instantly becomes the painter of the elite of the Second Empire with exquisite portraitures of prosperous households, whose universe he depicts on very large and imposing canvases saturated with sumptuous details, features and objects.
The second section focuses on Victorian society and the Thames. James Tissot resolutely aspired to become famous. His talent as a businessman helped him to reach that end. He distributed his work in Paris, in London and the United States, mostly through the medium of photography. He was also one of the first prominent admirers of Japanese art, which later became very popular in Paris. The details of the textiles, wonderfully enhanced in this second part of the exhibition, are astounding. The war of 1870 turned James Tissot’s life upside down. He stayed in Paris during the Commune and eventually fled to London in 1871, where he pursued a flourishing and brilliant career. The Victorian elite replaced the Parisian elite in his paintings. Yet, we are surprised to realise that these paintings are pretty sardonic and critical. Ladies in beautiful dresses seem to be bored on the deck of a boat (‘The Ball on the Shipboat’, 1874). Guests appear too early in a mundane ball and seem completely out of touch with the scene (‘Too early’, 1873). A wealthy man spends time with two young ladies on a small boat, on the Thames (‘On The Thames, or How Happy I Could Be With Either’, 1876). In this second section, we learn that James Tissot had a very critical eye on the society he was around. We also notice that James Tissot, sometimes aggressively, forced the viewer to a conclusion on the social rules and artifice of his epoch.
The third part focuses on Kathleen Newton and a new turn in his life. His relation with this fragile and divorced mother of two children harmed his career and social life. His paintings became more intimate, more impressionistic. Less in accordance with the public expectations. We admire beautiful interiors, life slowing down, the idealised protecting family sphere, but also the decline of Kathleen Newton, who suffers from tuberculosis. Her death marks his complicated return to Paris. The lightning and scenery of the exhibition underline this declining and disillusioned atmosphere.
The fourth and last part of the exhibition focuses on the life of Christ. Spiritism was a considerable trend in Europe, and James Tissot didn’t escape it. During an experience of spiritism, which was in vogue at that time, he thought to see Kathleen. This apparition inspired the last part of his career. He devoted himself to religious works on the life of Jesus and the old testament, travelling to the holy land in a documentary approach. The curators of the exhibition explain that this last part of James Tissot’s life, which sometimes appeared to be a conservative and regressive step backwards eventually fitted into a very modern debate about religion in French society, at the end of the 19th century. James Tissot desired to show an accurate, archaeologically and ethnographically vision of the Bible. An extraordinarily innovative and modern project in the European artistic landscape of that time.
During the entire visit of the exhibition we are immersed in the intense and fascinating storytelling of a – somewhat forgotten – crucial figure of the late 19th-century painting. Seeing the original paintings of James Tissot, in this particular setting, enables the viewer to take notice of sense of detail and realism that emanates from his creations. The fabrics, the facial expressions, the body postures and hand gestures, the festively decorated interiors, the quotidian objects, the maritime life. By coming near to the paintings, we are struck by the refinement and sophistication of James Tissot’s brushstroke. In parallel to the wide-format paintings other techniques are represented such as cloisonne enamel, bronze sculptures, engravings, gouache paintings, watercolour and graphite, and glass negatives. We can feel in the exhibition that James Tissot was an inveterate explorer of thematics, techniques, and styles.
The framing and the lighting, very subtle and minimalistic, plunges us in the heart of the painter’s environments and inspirations. It lets us put ourselves in his shoes and follow his footsteps. We start with his influences (« influences ») and pursue our/his path through his modern figures and portraits, the japanese inspiration (« looking towards Japan »), the London experience (« a frenchman in London »), the life of the docks and British coast (« Thames and variations »), the idle with Kathleen Newton (« paradise lost »), her lost (« in search of the lost Kathleen »), the return to Paris and interest in occultism and Catholic faith (« Tissot, a prodigial artist »).
Educating the visitor is a key part of this museum experience. Posterity can be very whimsical. In his years, James Tissot achieved international renown that outperformed that of Auguste Renoir or Claude Monet. He was inscribed in the Pantheon of emeritus painters, very successful, and devoted himself to a very lucrative genre: the portrait of high society members. Yet, as time passed, the recognition and impact of his work considerably diminished to such an extent that the retrospective exhibition « James Tissot, the ambiguous figure of modernity » at the Orsay Museum is the first in France since 1985.
The inaccurate picture of James Tissot is probably linked to the descriptive realism, a reflection of an era ruled by an obsolete and offset academicism. The talented curators of the exhibition, Marine Kisiel and Paul Perrin, show us – through well set up labels, wall texts and gallery guides – that James Tissot was resolutely modern. But not necessarily how we would expect it.
Throughout the exhibition we discover that James Tissot’s modernity is not linked to the technique, to the materials he used or to outdoor painting. It is quite different to the modernity of other artists which evolved towards abstraction. James Tissot was modern because he understood that his images could be reproduced. He was the first one to take the opportunity of the transition from handicraft to industry to reach a very wide audience. The style he developped was very efficient, legible and well drawn. This allowed him to reproduce his paintings through photography and to diffuse them through engravings and books.
James Tissot was also very modern as he didn’t hesitate to paint large scale scenes which could be quite scandalous. We discover quite easily a palpable ambiquity in some paintings, such as On the Thames or The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Calcutta refering to the french sentence « quel cul tu as », meaning « what a bottom you have »).
Last but not least, he was able to seize the decline underway and imminent arrival of the war with The Circle of the Rue Royale and its cloudy sky. By painting boredom, weariness and the sideways of the high society he seems to sense the twilight of the world he lives in.
Beneath the serene surface of a calm dandy – often depicted like so nowaday – James Tissot appears more like a painter of extreme reversals. The exhibition also unveils the picture of a brilliant stage director ahead of his time. James Tissot, with his biblical illustrations, created a new, unique and innovative cinematographic language through the expressiveness of the characters, the modernity of the framings, the brightly coloured compositions and the powerful shots. He eventually informs the great historical film productions of the first half of the twentieth century.
