Paris dedicates a retrospective to James Tissot, the first in more than 30 years


From June 23 to September 13, 2020, the Musée d'Orsay is dedicating a retrospective to James Tissot.

The James Tissot exhibition opened yesterday, June 23, at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Modern Ambiguity, open to the public until September 13, 2020.

This is the first retrospective that Paris devotes to the artist of the second half of the 19th century since the one organized at the Petit Palais in 1985.



The exhibition aims to place Tissot’s art in the artistic and social context of the time, tracing the great achievements of an artist with often iconic images, and his most daring research. Also addressed are his cherished themes and variations on them, as well as his desire to express himself through techniques other than painting, such as printmaking, photography or cloisonné enamel.

In the late 1850s, Tissot took his first steps in the French capital, where his painting was influenced by his passion for Japanese art and his frequentation of the most influential artistic circles. In Paris, the artist and his dandy spirit were highly appreciated by worldly society.
After the War of 1870 and the Paris Commune, he moved to London, where he came into contact with the highest circles. His work then focuses on the figure of his companion Kathleen Newton, who is always represented in his paintings. After the death of his beloved, he returned to France in 1882.
His career continued by depicting the many facets of the Parisian woman, the subject of a major cycle(Woman in Paris) and exploring mystical and religious subjects through the Prodigal Son cycle and the many illustrations of the Bible, which would make the artist very famous at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

After Paris, the exhibition will be presented Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco.

For more info: m.musee-orsay.fr

Image: James Tissot, The Gallery of HSM Calcutta (Portsmouth) (c. 1876, oil on canvas; London, Tate)

Paris dedicates a retrospective to James Tissot, the first in more than 30 years
Paris dedicates a retrospective to James Tissot, the first in more than 30 years


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