TISSOT, PASSION FOR FABRICS

James Tissot is a XIXth century painter, often introduced as the fashion and elegance painter. Son of a textile shop owner and a milliner mother, the artist took a particular care for fabrics and colours rendering or garment details. A thoroughness betraying the influence of Flemish Primitives on his work.

The artist paints the Second French Empire’s aristocracy and bourgeoisie, but his career extends on both sides of the Channel : probably the most English of French painters, and the most French of English painters.

Portrait of a dandy painter

Degas, a close friend, achieves in 1867 a portrait of James Tissot all dressed up : light grey wool flannel trousers, black shoes, long black coat, anthracite waistcoat, large black silk bowtie. On the table is placed a top hat. In short, the perfect attire of a gentleman from the second-half of the XIXth. Canvases and the easel are relegated to the background : the artist is represented far more as a dandy than as a painter.

The Cercle de la rue Royale : a fashion illustration

In his tableau The Circle of the Rue Royale, James Tissot delivers a synthesis of the Second French Empire men's fashion. It is a group portrait painted in 1866, gathering twelve members of the Circle. Aristocrats wear a black garment that is standardizing : frock coat are shorter, the waist is more lose-fitted. Trousers, if not black, are striped or checked. Button boots, top hat and thin cane. Waistcoats allow for originality by their fabric or their pattern, but shirts are more minimalists, except for a long collar that can receive a bowtie.

Sole exception : Charles Haas, at the extreme right, is the only commoner in the scene. He wears a color and a garment that contrast. He will inspire Proust his character Charles Swann in his novel In Search of Lost Time.