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Spring

1878
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Spring
  • Artist: James Tissot (French, Nantes 1836–1902 Chenecey-Buillon)
  • Date: 1878
  • Medium: Etching and drypoint; only state
  • Dimensions: Plate: 14 15/16 × 5 3/8 in. (37.9 × 13.6 cm)
    Sheet: 19 11/16 × 10 1/2 in. (50 × 26.7 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Marilyn Walter Grounds, 1982
  • Object Number: 1982.1181.22
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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A Winter's Walk, James Tissot French, Etching and drypoint on laid paper; first state of three
A Winter's Walk
James Tissot
1880
Morning, James Tissot French, Mezzotint on wove paper; trial proof
Morning
James Tissot
1886
Ramsgate, James Tissot French, Drypoint on laid paper
Ramsgate
James Tissot
1876
Le Petit Nemrod
James Tissot
19th century
The Three Crows Inn, Gravesend, James Tissot French, Etching on laid paper; first state of three
The Three Crows Inn, Gravesend
James Tissot
1877

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