Recently I had the pleasure of going to this exhibit on James Tissot called
Fashion and Faith. I must admit that prior to this point, I knew very little about James Tissot. Over the years I had seen his work sprinkled among a myriad of museums and museum shows and noticed his work, but not enough to delve deeper.
The back story is that going to spend 4 days with a friend in the Bay area and planning to hike and wine taste, I thought to check what if anything of interest might be up during my visit of a more cultured tone. I recognized the painting used on the Legion of Honor's main page for the exhibit so I ran it by my friend and also my traveling companion. They both were up for it. So it was built into our schedule of events.
This lovely painting was listed as a "study." Wow. Looked finished to me.
One of his "fashion" pieces. His family was in 'textiles' and his handling of the fabrics of his day is stunning. What I enjoyed so much about his group scenes like this is how each face tells a story. Almost as if there was thought bubble above their heads speaking outlaid. It is the first time I can recall where I have seen this phenomena in paintings.
Here is one of many of his painted stories. I do remember the title of this one "Early to the Ball."
Not mentioned in the title for this exhibition is that he was also an official chronicler of the, if my memory serves - Franco Prussian war. I thought the follow painting, done in watercolor, poignant.
Now for the 'faith' piece. While living in London (he was French), he met a young divorcee of 2 children. They lived together until her death from tuberculosis. He was devastated and turned back to his Catholic faith. He had already done a series on the prodigal son but he did a second version of it and also did over 100 watercolors from the new and old testament. Below is our prodigal son asking papa for his inheritance. The faces on the people at table are priceless in their judgement of this request. These same characters are in all the illustrations he did for this one parable. I believe there were 5 or 6 illustrating this reading alone.
In the watercolor series he did, a couple of them were used in movie scenes. I apologize for not remembering the movie from the 1920's that used one of his images, but the one everyone should recognize (I did not take a photo of it however) was a scene he painted with the ark of the covenant. His rendition of it was taken and used in Raiders of the Last Ark.
Lastly, here is one that really stood out for me from his illustrations from The Life of Christ; It is Jesus praying at Gethsemane. Never, in my imagination, had I thought of Christ praying like this. Yet it makes all the sense in the world when one really thinks beyond the common illustrations of the Bible we were all brought up on.
If you will be in the Bay area and can go see this exhibit, it is up until February 9, 2020. I highly recommend it. To sweeten the deal, the Coastal trail goes right by the Legion of Honor and on a clear day it is a beautiful hike along the water with the Golden Gate Bridge in view. Nature and Culture!
