Jacques-Joseph Tissot was born October 15, 1836, at Nantes near the mouth of the Loire river in western France, the son of Marcel-Théodore Tissot, a draper and merchant and Marie Durand a milliner. His initial interest was in architecture but he studied art in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. Here he met artists Edgar Degas and James McNeill Whistler, and soon had anglicized his first name to James. For a number of years he painted medieval subjects but soon favoured scenes of modern life, a field in which he was to excel. He attracted numerous patrons and by the late 1860s was earning a handsome income and had a substantial home in the Bois de Boulogne. In 1870-71 he joined the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War and participated in the unsuccessful defence of Paris. During the unrest that followed the war and saw the establishment of the Third Republic, Tissot was suspected of being involved in the Paris Commune, a short-lived government set up by socialist revolutionaries. He was forced to give up his successful career in Paris, and moved to London, where he soon resurrected his reputation and found patrons for his art. He stayed in England from 1871 to 1882.

He continued his interest in modern-life subjects now in such English settings such as the Thames, the streets of London, shipping and seaside resort towns (the HMS Calcutta was in Portsmouth). He was fascinated with etiquette, interior décor, elegant accessories and fashion. John Ruskin unkindly described Tissot's work as "mere colored photographs of vulgar society"! His pictures were in fact often described as "vulgar," but they were none the less eagerly purchased. His own social position put him at risk of being also seen as vulgar. In 1876, Tissot met Mrs. Kathleen Irene Kelly Newton, a beautiful Irish woman whose marriage to a surgeon in the Indian Civil Service had ended in divorce. 18 years his junior, she became his mistress, and moved into his home at about the time she had an illegitimate son, believed to be Tissot's. The fact that she was a divorcée with a child prevented their marriage, and they were careful to hide the relationship. However, Tissot painted her many times and some of his greatest and best-known paintings and etchings are of her. In 1882, Mrs. Newton died of tuberculosis in Tissot's home at the young age of 28. Distraught at her death, Tissot left London for Paris within days of her passing.

After Newton’s death, Tissot became interested in spiritualism and soon had embraced more traditional forms of religion. He travelled three times to the Holy Land gathering material for his illustrated book Life of Our Saviour Jesus Christ and preparing for an illustrated Hebrew Old Testament, finalised by his assistants and published in 1904, two years after his death. In his final years he lived a reclusive life in Paris and died at his family's home, Château de Buillon, near Besançon, France, on August 8, 1902 (or was it August 3, 1902?).

Biographic material in greater depth can be found at a fine webpage entitled "Who is James Tissot?" and you may click here for more data. A splendid large image of "Hide and Seek" c. 1877 appears on the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. childrens site. Click here for a cross stitch pattern of "The Gallery of HMS Calcutta". And here is "London Visitors" c. 1873/4, a very lovely Tissot painting with St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in the background. Familiar territory to the Webmaster whose office was on Northumberland Avenue, very close to Trafalgar Square, many moons ago!

While I indicate that "The Gallery of HMS Calcutta" was painted in 1877, the Tate Gallery website says that it was c. 1876. I do not know which date is correct. The Tate Gallery also says James Tissot was an English artist! The Art Gallery of Ontario, the source of the above etching, says he was born in 1834 and died in 1903 and was an American!

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