If James Tissot is less well known than some of his contemporaries, it may be due to his own decision to turn down an invitation from Degas to show his work at the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris. For much of his life, Tissot had a foot on either side of the Channel: born Jacques Joseph Tissot in Nantes, he fought in the Franco-Prussian War and had a hand in the Paris Commune of 1871 before moving to London, where he lived for more than a decade. The work he made there – lively society paintings that paid close attention to women’s fashion and relationships – has lost none of its fizz. The Art Gallery of Ontario is presenting three of Tissot’s paintings alongside 34 of his works on paper in an exhibition that demonstrates the artist’s keen eye for the sartorial and emotional details of women’s lives (20 December–29 June 2025).
Find out more from the Art Gallery of Ontario’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary
The Newspaper (1883), James Tissot. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Photo: © Art Gallery of Ontario
The Thames (1876), James Tissot. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Photo: © Art Gallery of Ontario
The Convalescent (1872), James Tissot. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto