Fashioning the seasons
See spring, summer, fall and winter come alive in the prints of French artist James Tissot.
James Tissot, October, 1878. Etching and drypoint on paper. Purchased as a Gift of The Marvin Gelber Fund from the Collection of Allan and Sondra Gotlieb, 1994. 94/223
A muse for all seasons? We think so. In the upcoming intimate exhibition, James Tissot: The Seasons, Tissot’s striking etchings of Kathleen Newton bring to life, through fashion and accessory, a unique portrait of Victorian England.
In October (1878), Newton is depicted in a stylish black and silver coat, turning coyly into brightly lit chestnut leaves. Carrying a book, she demonstrates she is educated and independent, a visual reminder of the ongoing fight for the universal education of women. In real life, Newton was a divorced mother of two, who lived in seclusion at Tissot’s home in St. John’s Wood, London, and was only identified by name many years after the artist’s death.
In his allegories of summer and spring, Tissot introduces Japanese-inspired motifs, including fans and parasols. Such items help to create his own particular vision of feminine beauty and of the modern fashionable woman. Representing winter with A Walk in the Snow (1880), Tissot shows Newton with a blank expression, lost in her own thoughts. This work is accompanied by a short poem by John Keats, suggesting Newton’s beauty was so great it outshone the frosty weather.
“She will bring, in spite of frost, Beauties that the earth hath lost”
Tissot completed over 300 paintings and 90 prints, as well as many drawings, oil sketches, enamel works and sculptures. His works were much admired during his lifetime, although some critics objected to the realistic detail and called his images “mere fashion plates”.
Today, his impact and influence are lasting. Thanks to the generous donations of Allan and Sondra Gotlieb, the AGO is home to 150 Tissot etchings and mezzotints ‒ the largest public collection of Tissot’s work outside of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The series of six etchings, on view upon reopening, is part of that incredible donation.
In 2017, one of our AGO visitor favourites, Tissot’s The Shop Girl (1883-1885), travelled from the AGO to Paris and San Francisco as part of the exhibition Degas, Impressionism, and the Paris Millinery Trade ‒ where it was among 40 Impressionist paintings spotlighting the heyday of the millinery trade. The Shop Girl is now back at the AGO in the Linda & Bob Krembil Pathway (Gallery 124), around the corner from James Tissot: The Seasons.