James Tissot

Today I learned a little about the artist James Tissot (1836-1902), who early in his career became famous for his exquisite depictions of French fashion and high society, especially beautiful women dressed in their finery. Click here for a look at 492 of this artist's paintings by either popularity or alphabetical order. 

When Tissot was in his late forties, he set about working on  a new project depicting Parisian women in a variety of settings. These settings included  a Catholic church. One day, while visiting the church, Tissot had a profound experience that was to change the rest of his life. While the priest was conducting mass, Tissot experienced a vision: Christ comforting the poor in the rubble of a fallen building. Doing without sleep for several nights, Tissot set to work painting the scene as it appeared to him. He called it Inward Voices: The Ruins.

From then on, the focus of his artistic endeavors shifted. He traveled to Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1886, and again in 1890 in order to create a series of paintings resembling as close as possible the world in which Jesus walked. The result was a series of 350 watercolors which took nearly 10 years to complete.

The crowds thronged wherever these works were placed on exhibit. Tissot also published a four volume international bestseller featuring the watercolors (To be fair,  some of Tissot’s friends and peers implied his shift in focus may have been partly related to financial considerations due to changing political winds).

Later in life, Tissot began to paint a series of Old Testament paintings but sadly died before making his way out of the book of Genesis.