James Tissot - Russell Ash

James Tissot is one of a small group of Victorian artists whose work is even more popular today than in his own lifetime, his paintings of elegant women in superb costumes establishing him as the foremost portrayer of the opulence and luxury of the 19th century.;In his native France, after a brief dalliance with paintings of medieval subjects, Tissot embarked on the avowedly modern subjects for which he became famous, his genre paints of stylish people going about their daily lives, depicted with bright colour and minute, almost photographic detail. In the 1870s he settled in London where he soon established a spectacular reputation with his "social conversation pieces". For several years, while conducting a liaison with Kathleen Newton, a divorcee with two illegitimate children, he became increasingly reclusive and isolated, turning to intimate domestic scenes, many of the them featuring striking portraits of Mrs Newton and her children. After her untimely death he returned to Paris where he re-established his reputation, first with a series of paintings depicting chic Parisian women and later, following a religious conversion, concluding his artistic career with a range of enormously popular illustrations representing the life of Christ and scenes from the Old Testament.;Once dismissed by the critic John Ruskin as "mere coloured photographs of vulgar society", Tissot's paintings of the social lives of prosperous Victorians are now acknowledged as being among the most revealing visual documents of the 19th century, brilliantly conveying the mood of the era, its aspirations and sentiments. In this monograph Russell Ash surveys the life and work of this most enigmatic and stylish of 19th century painters and, for the first time in such as large format, presents a selection of his finest works from private and public collections.