James Jacques Joseph Tissot (Born 1836) was a French artist who was born in Nantes. Tissot initially studied art at Beaux-Arts in Paris. His early paintings are heavily influenced by the Dutch School and are mainly historical. As a young man, he came into contact with the Impressionists and was leading a fairly unadventurous life. The 1870 Franco-Prussian War changed this totally. Following the fall of the Paris Commune after the defeat of France in this war, the artist decided moved to London in 1871. However, this move caused considerable problems in his life, and the painter needed to earn some money quickly. He was forced to start to paint accomplished highly finished pictures of social events, London society, etc. These pictures became a big success with the art buying and viewing public, but not with the critics. His success caused a lot of jealousy amongst his colleagues in France, because they regarded him as a very junior artist.
The hostility his pictures met is not easy to be understood to date. Many critics claimed that his painting were vulgar and were really only painted photographs. There is some truth in the second case, though the paintings show sophistication, a dash of Gallic wit and dazzling technique that many English artists were quite unable to match. In 1876 Tissot met Kathleen Newton, a young and attractive Irish divorcee. Kathleen became Tissot’s mistress and moved into Tissot’s home in London. Tissot withdrew from the social round and lived quietly with Kathleen at his Grove End home. Kathleen became his muse, and was in every sense the love of his life.
