From the High Life to the Life of Christ – James Tissot’s Path to Piety

APOLLO MAGAZINE

By Louise Nicholson

What Our Lord Saw from the Cross (1886–94), James Tissot. Brooklyn Museum, New York. Photo: courtesy the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

In the career-spanning ‘James Tissot: Fashion and Faith’, curated by Melissa Buron at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the artist comes across as focused, organised, ambitious and immensely hard-working. His carnet de ventes, discovered while the exhibition was being researched, records the sales of most of his works for three decades from 1857 to 1890. A key resource for the show and accompanying publication, it meticulously lists lost known paintings, unknown paintings, sitters for portraits, changes of picture titles to generate better sales and, of course, sale prices. 23 June - 13 September 2020 at Musée d'Orsay in Paris, France. [More]