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Tissot
160 pages of excellent text, filled with beautiful photos and illustrations. Tissot is best known for his brilliant pictures of English and French society in the 1860's and 1870's, depicting in great detail the costumes, interiors and riverside scenes of the period. This copy was published in 1995.
- GenresArtNonfictionBiography
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
15 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Wood
19 books5 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Christopher Wood was Britain's leading writer and broadcaster on the subject of Victorian art. For thirteen years he worked for the London auction house Christie's, becoming director of nineteenth-century paintings.
Christopher Wood was Britain's leading writer and broadcaster on the subject of Victorian art. For thirteen years he worked for the London auction house Christie's, becoming director of nineteenth-century paintings.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 7, 2023
If love is a flower, it's not a rose. It is a bunch of lilacs from a tree. Why? It was hiding in these flowers that I learned what romance was. Two adults who whispered on summer nights were my first peek at this joy. So, when I found Tissot's paintings, I felt that heat again. I wanted to suck the honey from those buds.
Few painters choose lilacs for their models. Like women of character, they are hard to capture. This French painter, though, takes them on and succeeds. And that's not all he does. The everyday scenes of young women and men on boats or at tables are all like scenes that cameras would take. These are glimpses of a world gone not only with its fashions but with pulses racing.
And Tissot paints lilacs. As you can see on the cover, they are true. They overflow the vase and the woman's arms from which ruffles compound the sense of life's abundant charms. The woman here was the love of his life who died from TB. She is immortalised with her bunch of lilacs, ever young as early days of summer.
Few painters choose lilacs for their models. Like women of character, they are hard to capture. This French painter, though, takes them on and succeeds. And that's not all he does. The everyday scenes of young women and men on boats or at tables are all like scenes that cameras would take. These are glimpses of a world gone not only with its fashions but with pulses racing.
And Tissot paints lilacs. As you can see on the cover, they are true. They overflow the vase and the woman's arms from which ruffles compound the sense of life's abundant charms. The woman here was the love of his life who died from TB. She is immortalised with her bunch of lilacs, ever young as early days of summer.
January 29, 2019
Victorian French painter, Jacques (James) Tissot was obsessed with a gorgeous Irish muse with copper hair and delicate pale skin, while he lived in London. He painted her constantly for six years until her death of tuberculosis. In the art book “Tissot” by Christopher Wood, we get to see her, (Kathleen Kelly Newton) again and again, wearing sumptuous frilly gowns. Looking at us with her sad gaze, Miss Newton was 21 years old when she met the dashing Frenchman, Tissot who was 39.
Disgraced in London society for having a child out of wedlock, she was a single mother and made a big fat scandal for moving in with Tissot. Knowing her tragic back story... makes looking at her in the paintings, great fun. The late wonderful art historian, author Christoper Wood, is a expert of this world and is the perfect person to write about it.
Poor James Tissot never got over her death, moved back to Paris, he eventually had a religious conversion and traveled the Middle East. His paintings of his young mistress are a glowing tribute to his love. I enjoyed looking at their glorious detail and the beautiful fashion. Tissot—whose fixation on fabric and the minutiae of clothing was in fact the son of a drapery dealer and a milliner.
His more sober paintings, done towards the end of his life, were not as enjoyable to me. They were mostly biblical events including watercolors depicting the life of Christ. They are widely used in many religious books and brought him fame and fortune back in France. I gave this book four stars.
Disgraced in London society for having a child out of wedlock, she was a single mother and made a big fat scandal for moving in with Tissot. Knowing her tragic back story... makes looking at her in the paintings, great fun. The late wonderful art historian, author Christoper Wood, is a expert of this world and is the perfect person to write about it.
Poor James Tissot never got over her death, moved back to Paris, he eventually had a religious conversion and traveled the Middle East. His paintings of his young mistress are a glowing tribute to his love. I enjoyed looking at their glorious detail and the beautiful fashion. Tissot—whose fixation on fabric and the minutiae of clothing was in fact the son of a drapery dealer and a milliner.
His more sober paintings, done towards the end of his life, were not as enjoyable to me. They were mostly biblical events including watercolors depicting the life of Christ. They are widely used in many religious books and brought him fame and fortune back in France. I gave this book four stars.
June 3, 2011
For the rest of us who still believe in beauty, honesty, and virtuosity, all is not lost in art. Book Tissot saved for us much of mysteries, dramas and visual feasts this master created, with its large format, good printing quality, and a very generous collection of Tissot’s paintings. In these large and fine images, we can appreciate his unparalleled subtle facial and hand expressions, especially in the eyes, which is the key to the drama, although he had many other weapons at his disposal, such as various compositions and complete freedom in values, etc. These large fine images can also indulge us in lengthy beauty collecting tours from corner to corner in the pictures, admiring exquisite details of fabric, furniture, architecture, plants, and bric-a-brac.
In addition, the book also tells Tissot’s life, including his unusual love story and later obsession in religious works. It also explains paintings, such as how he uses a composition trick to hint Luther’s otherworldliness even as he is in a crowd. Finally there included are also some drawings, pastels, watercolors, and oil sketches, showing the roundedness and solidness of his fundamental skills.
In addition, the book also tells Tissot’s life, including his unusual love story and later obsession in religious works. It also explains paintings, such as how he uses a composition trick to hint Luther’s otherworldliness even as he is in a crowd. Finally there included are also some drawings, pastels, watercolors, and oil sketches, showing the roundedness and solidness of his fundamental skills.
November 27, 2020
I really enjoy books by Christopher Wood. This relatively short (but large-format) book reviews the life and work of Tissot. Not being just a catalog or an exhibition, it offers a broader coverage of the subject. Clear language, systematic writing, life events coordinated with description of many well-known pictures. However, like in many other books of Wood, the fraction of black and white images is too high. It is natural to show BW engravings, especially for paintings that were lost (surprisingly many!). But also many well-known paintings that you could see in color in other books are also BW. The fraction of full-color images is quite good, the quality of color reproduction, the paper, all just great, yet with so many BW images, you see a lost opportunity and need to reach for a different book. Would be great to have this book reprinted yet again with as many pictures in color as it could be.
BTW, this review is not for the first hardcover edition by Weidenfield and Nicholson of 1986, but the 1995 edition by Arthur Books, with the same Ball on Shipboard on the front cover.
BTW, this review is not for the first hardcover edition by Weidenfield and Nicholson of 1986, but the 1995 edition by Arthur Books, with the same Ball on Shipboard on the front cover.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews