Intimate Details: Prints By James Tissot Opens October 5 at Zimmerli Art Museum

Opening October 5, Intimate Details: Prints by James Tissot celebrates the Zimmerli Art Museum's recent acquisition of several exquisite etchings by this noted chronicler of both Belle-Epoque Paris and Victorian London. Even as artists increasingly focused on depicting aspects of contemporary life during the late 19th century, Tissot's careful attention to portraying the most current fashions, furnishings, and social activities in his paintings stood out. One critic even claimed that "a picture by M. Tissot will be enough for archaeologists of the future to reconstitute our epoch." On November 5, curator-led exhibition tours take place during Art After Hours: First Tuesdays, which is free and open to the public.

"James Tissot's prints are a feast for the eyes," says Christine Giviskos, the Zimmerli's Curator of Prints, Drawings, and European Art, who organized the exhibition. "Not only do they show off his prowess as an observer of the contemporary scene, but they also show how he delighted in the process of translating the color, light, and decorative detail of his painted works into a black and white medium."

Intimate Details includes a dozen works created during a pivotal and productive period of Tissot's career: from 1875, when he took up printmaking in earnest, to 1885, around the time he became a devout Catholic and devoted the rest of his professional life to depicting the life of Jesus Christ. The exhibition also spotlights the recent acquisition of Tissot's major print series The Prodigal Son and a proof impression of The Chariot Women, which is among 11 prints on view for the first time. These works join a small group of Tissot's etchings, drypoints, and mezzotints that have been in the Zimmerli collection since the 1970s.

Although James Tissot (1836-1902) did learn the technique of etching early in his career, he made few prints while establishing himself as a painter in Paris during the 1860s. He portrayed popular scenes of the upper-middle class that were accessible to broad audiences: romantic dilemmas, fashionable women, leisure activities. He fled to London in 1871 (as did other Paris residents, due to political unrest in the city) and within a few years became focused on printmaking. A convergence of developments at the time revived interest in the medium among many painters: a renewed appreciation for the etchings of 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt; access to technical manuals and the expertise of master printers; and opportunities to create artistic prints through both the art market and the publishing industry.

Likely inspired by the printmaking activity of his contemporaries, especially Edgar Degas and James McNeill Whistler, Tissot generated more than 90 prints between 1875 and 1885. However, unlike many of his fellow artists, Tissot explored etching by reproducing his own paintings into highly finished, densely etched compositions, instead of more freely drawn prints preferred by some of his artist peers. Tissot's fastidious detail in translating colorful canvases into black-and-white prints presents itself with almost photographic realism. The prints are a visual delight, with a precise rendering of light, textures, and surfaces. The Prodigal Son series (1881-82) and The Chariot Women (1885), in particular, demonstrate Tissot's remarkable dedication to capturing his painted effects of color and light in a monochromatic medium.

In the Prodigal Son series, Tissot cast a well-known religious parable in the contemporary era. The four etchings, plus a frontispiece, represent a major departure at that moment in his career, which had been built on "minor genre" subjects. It also was his only major narrative series. While the compositions revisit a number of the artist's preferred motifs, such as landscape settings with river views and figures with pensive expressions, they also allow Tissot to create more complex figural arrangements and render dazzling effects of different types of light. The etching Prodigal Son: The Departure demonstrates an almost obsessive consideration of the illumination of the room, with diffuse light coming through the windows, as well as its impact on the composition's narrative effect. Prodigal Son: In Foreign Climes is notable for showing the title character as a westerner in Japan, allowing Tissot to revisit his strong interest in Japonisme from earlier in his career.

The Chariot Women is a proof with traces of "test marks" on the plate, providing a glimpse into how carefully Tissot considered each stroke of his etching needle, with pictorial effects achieved by varying the density and spacing of etched lines. This rendering of a chariot race in progress at the Paris Hippodrome is organized in terms of lightly and densely etched areas to capture both the spectacle of the event and the remarkable architecture and artificial illumination of the venue. The Chariot Women and The Mysterious Woman, also on view, are from a series on the subject of The Parisian Woman, made after Tissot returned to the city in 1882. Conceived as a major print series, the project was abandoned after the paintings received a lukewarm critical reception and Tissot's religious devotion led him to other artistic endeavors.

Intimate Details: Prints by James Tissot is organized by Christine Giviskos, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and European Art at the Zimmerli. It is on view from October 5, 2019 through March 29, 2020. The exhibition and accompanying brochure have been generously supported by Anthony RSDM '60, GSN '96 and Marlene Volpe.

Admission is free to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers. The museum is located at 71 Hamilton Street (at George Street) on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The Zimmerli is a short walk from the NJ Transit train station in New Brunswick, midway between New York City and Philadelphia.

The Zimmerli Art Museum is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., and select first Tuesdays of the month, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays and major holidays, as well as the month of August.

PaparazZi Café is open Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a variety of breakfast, lunch, and snack items. The café is closed weekends and major holidays, as well as the month of August.

For more information, visit the museum's website www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu or call 848.932.7237.

To post a comment, you must register and login.