Mélancolie

Details

JAMES JOSEPH TISSOT (FRENCH, 1836-1902)
Mélancolie
signed 'JJ Tissot' (lower left)
oil on panel
19 1/2 x 14 3/4 in. (49.5 cm. x 37.5 cm.)
Painted circa 1868.

Provenance

The artist.
with The Goupil Gallery, London, acquired directly from the above, 29 April 1869.
Arbuthnot Charles Guthrie (1825-1897), London, acquired directly from the above, 7 July 1869.
Eliza Highat[t] Mitchell (1857-1926), Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Her sale; Christie's, London, 25 April 1930, lot 99, as Reverie.
Wa[e?]lmann, acquired at the above sale.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 15 March 1967, lot 103, as Chagrin d'amour.
with Peter Claas, London, acquired at the above sale.
with Charlotte Frank, London, by 1968.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 7 June 1995, lot 113.
Acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty from the above.

Literature

Burlington Magazine, London, March 1967, vol. 109, p. viii, illustrated, as Chagrin, d'amour.
M. Wentworth, James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902): A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat. Providence, 1968, n.p., under no. 11.
W. E. Misfeldt, James Jacques Joseph Tissot; A Bio-Critical Study, unpublished Ph.D diss., Washington University, Saint Louis, June 1971, pp. 90, 367, fig. 46, illustrated.
W. E. Misfeldt, The Albums of James Tissot, Bowling Green, Ohio, 1982, p. 37, pl. I-62, illustrated.
M. Wentworth, James Tissot, Oxford, 1984, p. 67.
K. Matyjaszkiewicz, ed., James Tissot, exh. cat., Oxford, 1984, p. 96, under no. 19.
K. Matyjaszkiewicz, James Tissot 1836-1902, exh. cat., Paris, 1985, pp. 89, 111, no. 19.
M. Bailey, Van Gogh: Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man in England, exh. cat. Hampshire, 1992, pp. 28, 132, under no. 58, illustrated with the engraving.
Apollo, London, June 1995, p. 71, illustrated.

Exhibited

San Francisco, Legion of Honor, James Tissot: Fashion and Faith, 12 October 2019-9 February 2020, pp. 60, 84, 239-242, 244, 273, 285, 330, 335, figs. 87 and 100, no. 13, under Chronology footnote 33, under Tissot's Sales Notebook footnotes 119 and 120, also illustrated with a full page detail, as Melancholy.

Engraved

Goupil et Cie., circa 1868.

Sale Room Notice

Please see our website for updated provenance and literature for this work.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Elizabeth Seigel Vice President, Specialist, Head of Private and Iconic Collections

eseigel@christies.com +1 212 484 4812

Lot Essay

The present picture is an illustration of how the art of the 1860s was increasingly pre-occupied with depictions of mood. There is also an element of problem-solving, which delighted gallery-viewing audiences. Why is the young woman sad? Is she bereaved, or more probably frustrated in love? The pug at her side, offering comfort and solicitude, stands guard against further injury. The season is autumn and the setting is probably in the Bois de Boulogne, near to Tissot’s studio in Avenue l’Imperatrice. The statuary, including a female nude with her face in her hands, contributes to the narrative. We are encouraged to imagine an enclosed park or garden however, as the sitter is dressed in a house-coat for wear at home rather than a promenade. The garment was a studio prop, and can be seen in other works from the period such as Jeunes femmes regardant des objets japonais, and L’escalier both of 1869. After the Siege of Paris in 1870, Tissot left for the more stable environment of London in 1871, there to continue the successful sales he was already establishing in England.

We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her assistance with cataloguing this lot

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