Study for 'Too Early'

Details

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902)
Study for 'Too Early'
signed 'J. Tissot' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour, on buff paper
13¾ x 6¾ in. (35 x 17 cm.)

Provenance

with Leicester Galleries, London, 1937.

Exhibited

London, Leicester Galleries, Victorian Life, June 1937, no. 40, with another study of the same subject.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The present watercolour is one of two known studies for one of Tissot's earliest and most ambitious social conversation pieces Too Early, 1873, now in London's Guildhall Art Gallery (see fig. 1). The picture created a great stir at the Royal Academy when it was exhibited in 1873 and was commended as a great achievement in its study of character and expression and its perceptive depiction of the subtle dynamics of polite society.

The other study is in a private collection and, the present watercolour 'disappeared' after the Leicester Gallery exhibition and has only recently come to light.

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