Spring
James Tissot French
Not on view
For this narrow, vertical composition, Tissot drew inspiration from the pillar format of Japanese hashira-e prints. The tight frame emphasizes the figure’s cascading dress, a favorite of the artist, in which he repeatedly dressed his models. The work belongs to a series of personifications of the seasons. Here, the white muslin gown and apple blossoms overhead are the only visual cues that the subject is an allegory of spring. The use of up-to-date costume to signal the season connects the etching and the painting on which it was based to popular fashion plates of the period. Tissot exhibited the two works at Grosvenor Gallery in 1878, a rare instance in which he displayed a painting and its etched version together.
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