From Library Journal
Known for his sumptuous and elegant portrayals of well-turned-out Victorian society, Tissot has not had a scholarly museum exhibition in over 30 years--until now. James Tissot is the catalog accompanying a recent traveling exhibition of this artist's work, curated by Marshall and Warner (of the Yale Center for British Art). Their book portrays Tissot as "the painter of modern life"--in the Baudelairian sense. Although formally conservative in painting technique, they argue, Tissot was one of the best observers of life in the 19th century, focusing on the complex manners and morals of Victorian society. This argument is presented in the introductory essay as well as in the thorough catalog entries of the artist's paintings and prints. The other recent general monograph on the subject of Tissot, Russell Ash's James Tissot (Abrams, 1992), has beautiful plates but is not as strong a book, with very short entries on the paintings and a cursory bibliography. Recommended for art libraries and academic libraries supporting art programs. On a more sophisticated level, Seductive Surfaces is an anthology of essays written by scholars in the fields of art history, literature, and costume history. Applying Marxist and feminist methodology, these interdisciplinary essays examine a range of topics, including the influence of popular print sources such as the fashion plate in Tissot's paintings and his portrayal of women as "commodified status symbols" depicted through an elegant veneer. This detailed study is a nice complement to the exhibition catalog but is only recommended for libraries that support upper-level programs in art history and 19th-century studies.
-Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Engaging, sophisticated, and witty, French-born artist James Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) painted for many years in London before returning to Paris in the 1880s. His works not only document contemporary fashion, manners, and mores, but also the paradoxes and anxieties of his age. In this book, ten contributors approach Tissot and his art from a variety of theoretical positions and disciplines to arrive at fresh and often startling insights. Looking both at and beneath Tissot's seductive surfaces, the authors attempt to identify and decode the artist's subtexts -- issues of gender, class, and such ancillary topics as voyeurism, exhibitionism, fetishism, kitsch, and spiritualism.
Deliberately stamping his work with the appearance and taste of "vulgar society, " Tissot created paintings and prints that were both aesthetically and socially subversive. He focused on the dichotomy between appearance and reality -- while his surfaces are superficially charming, upon closer examination they can be seen as veneers concealing troubling psychological or social dramas. The authors show that Tissot's narratives may give an Impression of accessibility, but to determine their significance is a complex matter. The book also demonstrates the extent to which the art of Tissot offers a rich archaeological site for those with an interest in Victorian Britain and the Third Empire society.
