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Lot Essay
During the early years of his career, James Tissot (1836-1902) — christened Jacques Joseph but known as James from childhood and using that name professionally as an artist — painted compositions of figures in historical dress, as well as undertaking portrait commissions. At first he used costumes based on German 16th-Century fashions, which were considered to be ‘medieval’. After a visit to Italy, including Venice, Tissot extended his costume range to include Italian and French-inspired late 16th-Century garments. Such costumes appeared frequently on the Paris stage at that time in both operas and plays, such as Les Huguenots, Hamlet and Marie Stuart. History pictures depicting the same Late-Tudor and Stuart era, when Henri IV was king in France, had also been popularised in the 19th century by artists whom Tissot admired, notably Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Tissot either borrowed ‘Huguenot-style’ theatrical dress or had similar garments made up by dressmakers, as a number of pieces are worn by models posed in different ways for various historical-dress compositions, including On the Beach.
The young woman in the centre wears a black gown with sleeves that are puffed and ‘paned’ or slashed at the top, and close-fitting below. White edging emphasises the paned sleeves and high neckline, with a tall collar ending in a small white ruff. The paned sleeves reveal a pale-grey silk lining beneath. She wears a matching black velvet cap with white feathers. A black chalk drawing by Tissot of a bare-headed model wearing the same dress is known (currently unlocated) and the same costume appears full-length in Promenade on the Ramparts, 1864 (Cantor Arts Centre, Stanford University, California), Tentative d’enlèvement [The Attempted Abduction], 1865, and Le Rendez-vous, about 1867 (both unlocated). Both male costumes also feature in Promenade on the Ramparts, where the boy in pink jerkin and black puffed-sleeve jacket has grey hose and black shoes rather than the over-the-knee boots he wears in On the Beach, and the man has different trunk hose with grey rather than buff-coloured jerkin. Both adults are looking out to sea but the boy is looking directly at the viewer (and the artist), sullen and less than happy about having to sit and wait.
On the Beach is an unfinished painting: the white and grey horses, and a dark-coloured animal beside the man that might be intended as a mule or donkey rather than a horse, are lightly or barely sketched in. Tissot was very adept at painting costumed figures but less experienced at depicting horses. The dog is sketched with more confidence than the other animals, and dogs of various types appear in many of his works but horses are rarer. Although the painting was not sufficiently complete for exhibition, it was probably liked (and may have been requested as a gift) by Tissot’s friend, Antoine Colville (1793–1867), to whom it was dedicated by the artist. Colville painted miniatures and was also employed to decorate ceramics. He was born in the Jura, south-west France, near to where the family of Tissot’s father had lived after emigration from Italy, and their origins may have linked the two artists.
Tissot’s paintings often provide hints of stories, leaving the viewer to imagine what may have occurred or be about to happen. Given the historical costumes, the figures on the beach here could be Huguenots escaping from persecution in France and waiting to leave secretly by boat, with little or no baggage. However, it is most likely that Tissot had in mind the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, and her escape on 2 May 1568 from imprisonment at Lochleven Castle, Scotland, with the help of George Douglas, the castle owner’s brother, and Willie Douglas, a young orphaned relative. Lochleven Castle is on an island in Loch Leven and is accessed by boat. Willie Douglas stole the keys for Mary to escape and George Douglas was waiting for her with horsemen across the loch. Mary escaped without any baggage, her clothes and other possessions being sent on by her French servants a few days later. The French composer Louis Niedermeyer included Mary’s escape from Lochleven in his grand opera Marie Stuart, with libretto by Theodore Anne, premiered in 1844 in Paris. Earlier the French dramatist Pierre-Antoine Lebrun had reworked Friedrich Schiller’s play from the original German into a French drama that is considered the first great play of Romanticism. While Schiller and Lebrun focused on Mary’s last days, Niedermeyer gave a fuller story loosely based on Mary’s life between 1561 and her beheading in 1587. She had spent her childhood in France, betrothed to Francis, heir to the French throne. The couple became king and queen of France in 1559 but Francis died in 1560, whereupon Mary returned to Scotland. A devout Catholic, she was regarded with suspicion by Protestants in Scotland and by her cousin Elizabeth, Queen of England. Tissot’s setting, with rocky cliffs and narrow stretch of sand, underlines the precariousness of his protagonists.
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
The young woman in the centre wears a black gown with sleeves that are puffed and ‘paned’ or slashed at the top, and close-fitting below. White edging emphasises the paned sleeves and high neckline, with a tall collar ending in a small white ruff. The paned sleeves reveal a pale-grey silk lining beneath. She wears a matching black velvet cap with white feathers. A black chalk drawing by Tissot of a bare-headed model wearing the same dress is known (currently unlocated) and the same costume appears full-length in Promenade on the Ramparts, 1864 (Cantor Arts Centre, Stanford University, California), Tentative d’enlèvement [The Attempted Abduction], 1865, and Le Rendez-vous, about 1867 (both unlocated). Both male costumes also feature in Promenade on the Ramparts, where the boy in pink jerkin and black puffed-sleeve jacket has grey hose and black shoes rather than the over-the-knee boots he wears in On the Beach, and the man has different trunk hose with grey rather than buff-coloured jerkin. Both adults are looking out to sea but the boy is looking directly at the viewer (and the artist), sullen and less than happy about having to sit and wait.
On the Beach is an unfinished painting: the white and grey horses, and a dark-coloured animal beside the man that might be intended as a mule or donkey rather than a horse, are lightly or barely sketched in. Tissot was very adept at painting costumed figures but less experienced at depicting horses. The dog is sketched with more confidence than the other animals, and dogs of various types appear in many of his works but horses are rarer. Although the painting was not sufficiently complete for exhibition, it was probably liked (and may have been requested as a gift) by Tissot’s friend, Antoine Colville (1793–1867), to whom it was dedicated by the artist. Colville painted miniatures and was also employed to decorate ceramics. He was born in the Jura, south-west France, near to where the family of Tissot’s father had lived after emigration from Italy, and their origins may have linked the two artists.
Tissot’s paintings often provide hints of stories, leaving the viewer to imagine what may have occurred or be about to happen. Given the historical costumes, the figures on the beach here could be Huguenots escaping from persecution in France and waiting to leave secretly by boat, with little or no baggage. However, it is most likely that Tissot had in mind the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, and her escape on 2 May 1568 from imprisonment at Lochleven Castle, Scotland, with the help of George Douglas, the castle owner’s brother, and Willie Douglas, a young orphaned relative. Lochleven Castle is on an island in Loch Leven and is accessed by boat. Willie Douglas stole the keys for Mary to escape and George Douglas was waiting for her with horsemen across the loch. Mary escaped without any baggage, her clothes and other possessions being sent on by her French servants a few days later. The French composer Louis Niedermeyer included Mary’s escape from Lochleven in his grand opera Marie Stuart, with libretto by Theodore Anne, premiered in 1844 in Paris. Earlier the French dramatist Pierre-Antoine Lebrun had reworked Friedrich Schiller’s play from the original German into a French drama that is considered the first great play of Romanticism. While Schiller and Lebrun focused on Mary’s last days, Niedermeyer gave a fuller story loosely based on Mary’s life between 1561 and her beheading in 1587. She had spent her childhood in France, betrothed to Francis, heir to the French throne. The couple became king and queen of France in 1559 but Francis died in 1560, whereupon Mary returned to Scotland. A devout Catholic, she was regarded with suspicion by Protestants in Scotland and by her cousin Elizabeth, Queen of England. Tissot’s setting, with rocky cliffs and narrow stretch of sand, underlines the precariousness of his protagonists.
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.