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Lot Essay
Dans la serre (In the Conservatory) has traditionally been dated to circa 1867-69, when Tissot was working in Paris, but is more likely to have been painted some ten years later, in London, between 1875-79. The young woman's costume lacks the fullnes of skirt that is usually found in the late 1860s, while the slimmer silhouette, with longer waistline and greater emphasis on fullness at hip-level at the back of the dress, is more characteristic of the second half of the 1870s. The tall, narrow composition of a three-quarter length figure set against a plant or garden background is also similar to Tissot's paintings of women personifying the seasons, which date from about 1875-79.
Tissot had a conservatory in his house in Paris (the setting for Jeune femme tenant des objets japonais of about 1864-65, (fig. 1) and built on to the house he bought in 1873 at 17 (now 44) Grove End Road. The extension, designed by architect J. M. Brydon and completed in 1874, added a studio 'amply lighted, principally from the north and east', which opened along 'the whole of one side...to a large conservatory, from which it is separated by an arrangement of glass screens and curtains'. (Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who subsequently owned the house, extended it further and altered most of the interior; demolition and later building has altered the property completely.) Tissot's conservatory is shown on a reconstructed plan of the house and garden published by Mireille Galinou in Country Life (13 July 1989). Several of Tissot's London paintings are set in or near his conservatory. In the Conservatory (The Rivals) (fig. 2), gives the most comprehensive view, with a jungle of exotic plants and palms visible beyond the glass screens, including a Monstera plant, like the one at the back of Dans la serre, on the far left. In this profusion of plants, Tissot's domestic conservatory was more European than English: William Robinson, a Francophile gardener, wrote that 'Abroad [conservatories] are gracefully verdant at all times, being filled with handsome exotic evergreens and arranged so as to present the appearance of a mass of luxuriant vegetation, and not that of a glass shed filled with pots and prettiness', which was characteristic of English conservatories.
The figure in Dans la serre is unidentified. It may be a portrait, painted to commission, whose identity has been lost, or may be a study of a professional model. Tissot was painting both portraits to commission and pictures of models subsequently entitled 'portrait', the latter perhaps with a view to attracting further portrait commissions. A three-quarter-length of a young woman in a pleated white muslin dress, similarly posed with a closed parasol and book in her hand but this time standing by the glass doors to a billiard room, was exhibited by Tissot at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1876 with the title A Portrait (Tate Britain, London, illustrated as lot 21).
The painting is a masterly play of subtle color contrasts. The soft greys and browns of the costume are set off by a riot of white and pink azalea blooms, with the pink echoed in the ribbon at her neck, and enhanced by a few purple blooms behind, and the white echoed in muslin at neck, lace at wrist and the white pages of the closed book. Warm cheek tones and red lips are picked up in the touches of bright red on the left and the brown leaves at the back. The verticals and diagonals of the Monstera leaves and branches, and the glazing bars of the conservatory, contrast with the soft outlines of the fur-trimmed-and-lined jacket and feather-trimmed hat.
Many of Tissot's London pictures, in particular those centered on his garden, include a rich variety of plants, painted with consummate skill and clear enjoyment in the variety of texture and color. Examples set in or near his conservatory include The Fan (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut), in which a young woman fluttering a fan sits against the back of an armchair draped in a Japanese embroidery, The Bunch of Lilacs (fig. 3), with a backdrop of conservatory full of exotic palms, and two versions of La Soeur ainée (fig. 4), in which Kathleen Newton sits on the conservatory stairs, which are lined with lilies, fuschias and similar plants in pots on either side (fig. 5).
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for preparing this catalogue entry.
(fig. 1) J.-J.-J. Tissot, Jeune femme tenant un objet japonais, 1864-5, Private Collection.
(fig. 2) J.-J.-J. Tissot, In the Conservatory (The Rivals), circa 1875-8, Private Collection.
(fig. 3) J.-J.-J. Tissot, The Bunch of Lilacs, circa 1875, Private Collection.
(fig. 4) J.-J.-J. Tissot, La soeur âinée, etching, 1881, Musée de Cambrai.
(fig. 5) Photograph of Kathleen Newton and her niece, Lilian Hervey, on the steps below Tissot's studio and conservatory in Grove End Road.
Tissot had a conservatory in his house in Paris (the setting for Jeune femme tenant des objets japonais of about 1864-65, (fig. 1) and built on to the house he bought in 1873 at 17 (now 44) Grove End Road. The extension, designed by architect J. M. Brydon and completed in 1874, added a studio 'amply lighted, principally from the north and east', which opened along 'the whole of one side...to a large conservatory, from which it is separated by an arrangement of glass screens and curtains'. (Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who subsequently owned the house, extended it further and altered most of the interior; demolition and later building has altered the property completely.) Tissot's conservatory is shown on a reconstructed plan of the house and garden published by Mireille Galinou in Country Life (13 July 1989). Several of Tissot's London paintings are set in or near his conservatory. In the Conservatory (The Rivals) (fig. 2), gives the most comprehensive view, with a jungle of exotic plants and palms visible beyond the glass screens, including a Monstera plant, like the one at the back of Dans la serre, on the far left. In this profusion of plants, Tissot's domestic conservatory was more European than English: William Robinson, a Francophile gardener, wrote that 'Abroad [conservatories] are gracefully verdant at all times, being filled with handsome exotic evergreens and arranged so as to present the appearance of a mass of luxuriant vegetation, and not that of a glass shed filled with pots and prettiness', which was characteristic of English conservatories.
The figure in Dans la serre is unidentified. It may be a portrait, painted to commission, whose identity has been lost, or may be a study of a professional model. Tissot was painting both portraits to commission and pictures of models subsequently entitled 'portrait', the latter perhaps with a view to attracting further portrait commissions. A three-quarter-length of a young woman in a pleated white muslin dress, similarly posed with a closed parasol and book in her hand but this time standing by the glass doors to a billiard room, was exhibited by Tissot at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1876 with the title A Portrait (Tate Britain, London, illustrated as lot 21).
The painting is a masterly play of subtle color contrasts. The soft greys and browns of the costume are set off by a riot of white and pink azalea blooms, with the pink echoed in the ribbon at her neck, and enhanced by a few purple blooms behind, and the white echoed in muslin at neck, lace at wrist and the white pages of the closed book. Warm cheek tones and red lips are picked up in the touches of bright red on the left and the brown leaves at the back. The verticals and diagonals of the Monstera leaves and branches, and the glazing bars of the conservatory, contrast with the soft outlines of the fur-trimmed-and-lined jacket and feather-trimmed hat.
Many of Tissot's London pictures, in particular those centered on his garden, include a rich variety of plants, painted with consummate skill and clear enjoyment in the variety of texture and color. Examples set in or near his conservatory include The Fan (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut), in which a young woman fluttering a fan sits against the back of an armchair draped in a Japanese embroidery, The Bunch of Lilacs (fig. 3), with a backdrop of conservatory full of exotic palms, and two versions of La Soeur ainée (fig. 4), in which Kathleen Newton sits on the conservatory stairs, which are lined with lilies, fuschias and similar plants in pots on either side (fig. 5).
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for preparing this catalogue entry.
(fig. 1) J.-J.-J. Tissot, Jeune femme tenant un objet japonais, 1864-5, Private Collection.
(fig. 2) J.-J.-J. Tissot, In the Conservatory (The Rivals), circa 1875-8, Private Collection.
(fig. 3) J.-J.-J. Tissot, The Bunch of Lilacs, circa 1875, Private Collection.
(fig. 4) J.-J.-J. Tissot, La soeur âinée, etching, 1881, Musée de Cambrai.
(fig. 5) Photograph of Kathleen Newton and her niece, Lilian Hervey, on the steps below Tissot's studio and conservatory in Grove End Road.