James Jacques Joseph Tissot; Frenchman shunned by his contemporaries, a beautiful fallen woman and a tragic love story…
The crushing French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the fall of the Paris Commune forced Tissot to leave France for London at the age of 35 in 1871. Here his society paintings were a success with the buying public and, although a great friend and mentor to Degas, this caused resentment among his French Impressionist contemporaries who considered his style photogenic and vulgar - showing the 'shallow British nouveau riche at their worst'.
In 1872, Tissot began exhibiting at the Royal Academy and in 1875 he met a beautiful Irish divorcee and mother called Kathleen Newton, who he clearly fell deeply in love with and who tragically died at the age of 29 in 1882. This short and intense period produced paintings dominated by the closeness of family and domesticity and his enthusiasm and skill as a painter seems to have been invigorated and energised.
Influences of the Orient and Japan come to the fore alongside an interest in etching and print-making and this 1875 etching from the major painting tiled Le Chapeau Rubens [Ruben’s Hat] is a nice example combining the two (FS21/307).
James Jaques Joseph Tissot
Le Chapeau Rubens (FS21/307)
The model does not appear to be his beloved Kathleen who has a rather majestic longer straighter nose; but Kathleen is often depicted in a Rubens hat too, so maybe it is... This is a rare etching from an edition of just 50, which bear the artist’s red monogram and the estimate is £600-£800.
