James Tissot: Painting the Elegant Life

Jacques Joseph (James) Tissot (1836-1902) was an anglophile French painter whose best-known works were done while living in England from 1871 to 1882 or shortly thereafter. Biographical information on him can be found here.

Before leaving for England, Tissot was a painter of Paris society, a practice he continued with English society until the death of his beloved Irish mistress who was the mother of his son. During the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War and its Paris Commune aftermath, he was in Paris and helped fight in its defense. The Wikipedia biography linked above is unclear as to why he left France. One explanation is that it was because he fought on the Communard side, and the Commune was, of course, violently crushed by French forces. The entry offers the suggestion that Tissot joined the Commune side as a means of protecting his assets. This makes some sense because he almost universally featured well-to-do people and their haunts in his paintings, something unlikely for a committed revolutionary. Plus, towards the end of his career, he switched to making watercolors of religious subjects, something favored by conservative and Royalist groups in late 19th century France.

Tissot's mature oil painting style can be described as generally hard-edged so far as his subjects are concerned; background objects were often treated less distinctly. Perhaps because of his sharp rendering, his London-era paintings are a useful resource regarding aspects of England in the 1870s and early 80s.

Gallery

The Thames - 1867
Tissot visited London years before he moved there.

Too Early - 1873

The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth) - 1877
According to its Wikipedia entry, the Calcutta was an 84-gun second rate (in terms of broadside) Royal Navy vessel. Being thoroughly obsolete years earlier, it became a gunnery training ship at Devonport in 1865. Devonport is a ways west of Portsmouth, so either the painting's caption is wrong or it's Wikipedia at fault. Regardless, it seems that the stern of the ship was still serving as a site for social functions when Tissot depicted it.

Mavourneen - 1877
The word is from the Irish, and means "my darling." The women pictured is Kathleen Newton, Tissot's mistress.

Croquet - c. 1878

On the Thames - 1882

Le bal - 1880

The Reception - 1885
Note the similarity of the subjects in these two paintings.

The Traveler - 1882-85

Julius LeBlanc Stewart: Society Painter

Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855-1919) was born to wealth, which made the artistic life easier than most others found it. Wealth also provided social connections leading to the subject matter for many of his paintings. He was whisked off to Paris with his family at about age 10, and spent the rest of his life in Europe, as best I can tell.

A big problem for me is that I can find little regarding Stewart on the Internet or in my library of art-related books. His skimpy Wikipedia entry seems to have the most information.

Stewart can perhaps best be compared artistically to James Tissot, who also favored high society scenes for much of his career. Tissot was born 19 years earlier, but both died in their mid-60s. As best I can tell from small, Web-based images, Stewart's paintings seem more pleasing than those by Tissot, which generally have a brittle, hard-edged character.

Gallery

After the Ball - 1877

Lady on a Pink Divan - 1877
Stewart was just getting started when these two images were painted. He seems to have used the same model and costume for both.

The Letter - 1882
Women reading or reacting to letters was a popular late-19th century subject for many artists.

A Hunt Ball - 1885
One of Stewart's better-known paintings.

On the Yacht "Namouna," Venice - 1890
The yacht was owned by James Gordon Bennett. And that's Lillie Langtry towards the right.

Rédemption - 1895

A Supper Party - 1903

Rio della Maddalena - 1908
Stewart made cityscapes in the Venice area over the years.

Un nu sur la pelouse
He painted quite a few scenes of nude nymphs in grassy and woodsy settings.

Tom Roberts: Versatile, With a Nice Touch

Thomas William (Tom) Roberts (1856-1931) was born in England and migrated to Australia in his early teens. Thereafter, he spent time in both countries. His initial art training was informal, but in 1881-84 he studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London. This information and more can be found in his Wikipedia entry. Charley Parker recently dealt with Roberts here.

Roberts painted landscapes, genre scenes and portraits with a nice, clean touch most of the time. To me, the archetypical Roberts painting combines fairly thinly painted backgrounds and more heavily painted subjects with areas done using a broad, flat brush. It seems that around 1910 he began using a more simplified palette. Unfortunately, I can't readily locate many of examples of this new direction. In any case, I find Roberts' body of work from the late 1880s and through the 1890s quite satisfying.

Gallery

A Spanish Beauty - 1883-84
Painted during his student days.

Bourke Street, West - c. 1885-86

Coming South - 1886
Sailing to Australia.

Slumbering Sea, Mentone - 1887

An Autumn Morning, Milson's Point, Sydney - 1888

Eileen - 1892

study of Lena Brach - 1893
This is the largest image I could find. I include it for readers interested in how artists work up paintings.

Grey Lady

Miss Isobel McDonald - 1895

Miss Florence Greaves - 1898

Alfred Howitt - 1900
Yes, Roberts also portrayed men.

Madame Hartl - 1909-10
This was painted when Roberts was simplifying his palette.

Hillside - 1927
The latest Roberts painting I turned up during a none-too-rigorous search.

Henri-Joseph Harpignies: At the Far Edge of Impressionism

Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819-1916) lived for nearly a century. In his youth, Academic painting was riding high and, by the time of his death, some artists were painting purely abstract works. Harpignies, however, stuck to a narrow stylistic range -- largely Barbizon, but sometimes with a touch of the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian proto-Impressionists. A biographical note is here.

Harpignies was primarily a landscape painter; Google Images-search of his works turn up only incidental people in the landscapes shown. His style varied from clearly Barbizon-like detailing to somewhat more simplified paintings featuring obvious brush strokes. Some of these latter paintings are pretty small, though I did recently notice one on display at the Seattle Art Museum that was large and featured bolder brushwork.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that he was one of those artists who liked to use geometry as the basis for some of his compositions. I note a couple of instances below, but some of the other images seem to have the same feature.

Gallery

Le vieux chêne - 1895
This was painted when Harpignies was about 75 years old, yet it looks more Barbizon-like than some of his painting made years before, when Barbizon was more fashionable.

Cliffs Near Crémieu - 1847
An early work.  Solid, though I wonder about the  composition where the foreground zone is about as high as the sky above the butte.  Crazy me, I would have had less sky, because that's my usual choice when composing photos.

River and Hills - 1850s
I don't have dimensions for this painting, though it doesn't strike me a being very large.  Has a Macchiaioli feel to it.

Washing the Laundry - 1875
This is a small painting, about 13x16 inches (32x40cm), so visible brushwork can be expected.

The Village Church
Sorry about the slightly blurred image, but that was all I found of this painting.  Here the sky and remainder each take up about half the vertical distance.

Le pont canal à Briare - 1888
A nice, clean painting with very little fussy detail.  But note that the focal bridge support on the left side of the canal is approximately one-third of the vertical canvas dimension, the sky and foreground at that point each measuring close to another third each.  Were geometrical relationships (slightly disguised or fudged though they might have been) intentional or simply the way he intuitively painted?

The Big Tree

Wilfrid de Glehn: John Singer Sargent Associate

Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn (1870-1951) was a British painter with German roots (he changed the spelling of his family name from von Glehn during the Great War), who worked with John Singer Sargent and Edwin Austin Abbey (details on this are sketchy, however). He remained friends with Sargent and was depicted by him on a few occasions.

De Glehn's Wikipedia entry is here, but it is brief. Much more information can be found on this site, including some information regarding himself and Sargent (here). More information on de Glehn and his wife Jane is here.

While de Glehn can be considered an impressionist, he made many portraits that were traditional in style. His series on female nudes tended to be more sketchy, but not impressionist.

J.S. Sargent Depicts the de Glehns

Jane de Glehn (in a Corfu garden)

The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy - 1907

Sketchers - 1913
The woman is thought to be Jane, but could be someone else.


Gallery: de Glehn's Works

Self-Portrait

Fishing
A website has this dated 1932, but I'd say it would be more like 1912, to judge by the clothing.

Shadows on the Wall, Cannes, France

Lynn Fontanne - 1912
Fontanne was British, but best-known on the American stage, often appearing with her husband, Alfred Lunt.

Sisters - 1923

Mrs Neville Chamberlain - 1924

Clare Collins - 1927

Jane Emmett - 1931
This is the niece of Jane Emmett, de Glehn's wife.

Louise in Stripped Dress

Resting
De Glehn painted many nudes.

Val d'Aosta scene
An example of de Glehn's landscape work.