Painter of fashionable women, surprisingly not an Impressionist.

Born Jacques Joseph Tissot on October 15, 1836, in Nantes, France, and better known by the anglicized version of his name, James Tissot is known for his detailed and charming depictions of fashionable women and the daily life of the European upper crust. It’s no wonder he paid so much attention to clothes in his paintings, seeing as papa was was drapery merchant and maman dabbled in making hats. Tissot left Nantes in 1856 to train at the illustrious École des Beaux-Arts. While in Paris, young Jacques Joseph hung out with the likes of James Abbott Mcneill Whistler and Edgar Degas. Likely looking for a slightly punchier moniker, it was around this time that Tissot began to use the English version of his first name, James.

Tissot hit the road in the 1860, traveling to Italy and London. Tissot would ultimately find a large market for his work within London high society, exhibiting artwork at the Royal Academy of Art. He fully assimilated into English life, styling himself as somewhat of a dandy and taking up residence in a classic English mansion with an extensive garden that he frequently used as a setting for his work. His traditionally composed and executed scenes appealed to English patrons, and even though he was familiar with Impressionism, and shares influences from Japanese art, Tissot seemed to like to stick to the classics in terms of his style and rendering. Turns out playing it safe was pretty lucrative, and his more traditional style avoided the ire of the critics that so frequently plagued the Impressionists.

It was during his time in England that he met his mistress and muse, Kathleen Newton, an Irish divorcee. Her delicate features and red hair captured his attention, and she and her family appear in many of his paintings. Kathleen died in arguably the most Victorian way possible, first contracting tuberculosis and then committing suicide via laudanum overdose in 1882. After her death, Tissot’s work was never the same again, and he eventually shifted gears to producing religious paintings after a return to the church. Incidentally, his paintings of bible stories were more well known in the years immediately after his death, though today his depictions of fashionably dressed beautiful women are more famous.