The fashionable painter James Tissot was Degas’s friend and mentor in the 1860s and early 1870s, both having studied under Louis Lamothe. Posed in a studio, Tissot is surrounded by canvases that reflect the wide-ranging tastes he shared with Degas: a Japanese scene; pictures of contemporary leisure; a Northern Renaissance portrait; and, behind the easel, a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century Venetian subject. The composition is similar to that of Manet’s Émile Zola, painted around the same time, but whereas Zola’s posture is rigid, Tissot leans nonchalantly, suggesting greater familiarity between painter and subject.
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Title:James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836–1902)
Artist:Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)
Date:ca. 1867–68
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:59 5/8 x 44 in. (151.4 x 111.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1939
Accession Number:39.161
Inscription: Stamped (lower right): Degas
the artist, Paris (until d. 1917; his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 6–8, 1918, no. 37, as "Portrait d'homme dans un atelier de peintre," for Fr 25,700 to Hessel); [Josse Hessel, Paris, 1918–21; deposited on March 14, 1921 with Durand-Ruel, Paris; sold on April 28, 1921 to Durand-Ruel, New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1921–22, sold on April 6, 1922 for $1,400 to Lewisohn]; Adolph Lewisohn, New York (1922–d. 1938; cat., 1928, pp. 98–99, ill.); [Jacques Seligmann, New York, until 1939; sold to The Met]
New York. Century Association. 1931, no catalogue [see Sterling and Salinger 1967].
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Degas: Loan Exhibition Arranged by Students," May 9–30, 1931, no. 3 (as "Portrait of Jules Finot, the Painter," lent by Adolph Lewisohn).
New York. Marie Harriman Gallery. "Degas," November 5–December 1, 1934, no. 5 (as "Portrait of Jules Finot," lent by Mr. Adolph Lewisohn, New York City).
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition," June 26–October 4, 1936, no. 268 (as "Jules Finot," lent by the Adolph Lewisohn Collection, New York).
New York. Durand-Ruel. "Masterpieces by Degas," March 22–April 10, 1937, no. 2 (as "Portrait de Jules Finot," lent by the Adolph Lewisohn Collection).
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "Great Portraits from Impressionism to Modernism," March 1–29, 1938, no. 9 (as "Jules Finot," lent by the Adolph Lewisohn Collection, New York City).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Painting from David to Toulouse-Lautrec," February 6–March 26, 1941, no. 34 (as "Portrait of James Tissot").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lewisohn Collection," November 2–December 2, 1951, no. 22 (as "James Tissot [1836–1902]").
New York. Wildenstein. "Degas: Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of The Citizens' Committee for Children of New York, Inc.," April 7–May 7, 1960, no. 14 (as "James Tissot dans un Atelier d'Artiste").
Providence. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. "James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1836–1902: A Retrospective Exhibition," February 28–March 29, 1968, no cat. number.
Toronto. Art Gallery of Ontario. "James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1836–1902: A Retrospective Exhibition," April 6–May 5, 1968, no cat. number.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portrait of the Artist," January 18–March 7, 1972, no. 22 (as "Jacques Joseph Tissot [1836–1902]").
Paris. Grand Palais. "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," September 21–November 24, 1974, no. 11 (as "Jacques [James] Tissot").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, no. 11 (as "Jacques Joseph [James] Tissot").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas in the Metropolitan," February 26–September 4, 1977, no. 6 (of paintings).
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Degas," February 9–May 16, 1988, no. 75 (as "James Tissot").
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Degas," June 16–August 28, 1988, no. 75.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Degas," September 27, 1988–January 8, 1989, no. 75.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," April 19–August 8, 1994, no. 62 (as "Portrait de James Tissot").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Origins of Impressionism," September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 62.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Private Collection of Edgar Degas," October 1, 1997–January 11, 1998, no cat. number (addendum p. 127).
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections," October 10, 1999–January 30, 2000, no. 25 (as "James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot").
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections," March 25–May 7, 2000, no. 25.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections," May 28–July 30, 2000, no. 25.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Degas and America: The Early Collectors," March 3–May 27, 2001, no. 22.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Degas and America: The Early Collectors," June 16–September 9, 2001, no. 22.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting," March 4–June 29, 2003, no. 105.
London. National Gallery. "Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century," June 28–August 28, 2006, no. 43.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 66.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "James Tissot: L'ambigu moderne," June 23–September 13, 2020, no. 2 (as "Portrait de James Tissot").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Manet / Degas," September 24, 2023–January 7, 2024, unnumbered cat. (colorpl. 87).
"La vente Degas." La renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe no. 4 (June 1918), p. 146, lists it as "Portrait de Tissot dans son atelier," sold to Hessel for Fr 25,700.
Paul Lafond. Degas. Vol. 2, Paris, 1919, p. 15, identifies the sitter as the painter Finot, and erroneously states that it was exhibited at the 4th Impressionist exhibition of 1879.
Henri Rivière. Les Dessins de Degas: Reproduits en fac-simile. Paris, 1922, unpaginated, under no. 4, reproduces the drawing for this painting (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.) as "Le peintre J.-J. Tissot".
Royal Cortissoz. Personalities in Art. New York, 1925, ill. opp. p. 222, as "Portrait of a Man in the Studio of an Artist".
"Lewisohn Buys Van Gogh's Famous 'Arlesienne'." Art News 24 (March 27, 1926), p. 1.
Stephan Bourgeois. The Adolph Lewisohn Collection of Modern French Paintings and Sculptures. New York, 1928, pp. 95, 98–99, ill., calls it "Portrait of Jules Finot" and dates it 1868; identifies the portrait in the background as Albert of Saxony by Lucas Cranach.
Edith von Térey. "Die Sammlung Adolph Lewisohn, New York." Kunst und Künstler 27 (August 1929), p. 417, ill. p. 421, calls it "Im Atelier" and identifies the sitter as Finot.
Stephan Bourgeois and Waldemar George. "The French Paintings of the XIXth and XXth Centuries in the Adolph and Samuel Lewisohn Collection." Formes nos. 28–29 (1932), pp. 301, 304, ill. between pp. 302 and 303, as "Portrait of Jules Finot".
James Laver. "Vulgar Society": The Romantic Career of James Tissot, 1836–1902. London, 1936, pp. 11–13, identifies the sitter as Tissot, citing the drawing now in the Fogg Art Museum and the sketches of the head (private collection); suggests that Degas "suppressed the name of his sitter because of his subsequent quarrel with Tissot".
Sam A. Lewisohn. Painters and Personality: A Collector's View of Modern Art. [New York], 1937, pl. 127, calls it "Jules Finot".
Alfred M. Frankfurter. "Twenty Important Pictures by Degas." Art News 35 (March 27, 1937), pp. 13, 24, ill. p. 15.
"Degas, Romanticist, Who 'Fell in Love With the Law of Balance'." Art Digest 11 (April 1, 1937), p. 7.
Agnes Mongan. "Degas as Seen in American Collections." Burlington Magazine 72 (June 1938), p. 296, pl. IA, as "Jules Finot".
R. H. Wilenski. Modern French Painters. New York, [1940], p. 52, calls it "Baron Jules Finot".
John Rewald. Edgar Degas. Mulhouse, France, [194_?], fig. 21, calls it "Portrait du peintre James Tissot" and dates it 1867–70.
Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs. Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art. Cambridge, Mass., 1940, vol. 1, p. 359, under no. 668.
Louise Burroughs. "A Portrait of James Tissot by Degas." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 36 (February 1941), pp. 35–38, ill. on cover, cites several drawings of Tissot by Degas which, together with Tissot's own self-portraits and photographs, "leave little doubt" that he is the subject of this picture; dates it approximately 1868 based on the drawings, the dates of the friendship between the two men, and comparisons with other Degas portraits.
Denis Rouart. Degas à la recherche de sa technique. Paris, 1945, pp. 51, 73 n. 73 [English ed., 1988, p. 86, ill. p. 87 (color)], states that Degas retouched this picture, first rubbing parts of the canvas with copal in oil.
Jacques Lassaigne. Edgar Degas. Paris, 1945, ill. p. 30, dates it about 1868.
Camille Mauclair. Edgar Degas. New York, 1945, unpaginated, ill.
John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946, ill. p. 155, dates it about 1868.
P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 1, pp. 56, 239 n. 117; vol. 2, pp. 90–91, no. 175, ill., calls it "James Tissot dans un atelier d'artiste" and dates it 1868; notes that the three drawings in the third atelier sale were called studies for the portrait of Tissot and that the sitter in the painting resembles contemporary photographs of Tissot.
Lillian Browse. Degas Dancers. New York, [1949], p. 21.
Meyer Schapiro. Vincent van Gogh. New York, 1950, p. 44, mentions it as an example of portraits depicting figures among objects of art, such as Manet's portrait of Emile Zola (1868; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and Van Gogh's "Père Tanguy" (1887; Musée Rodin, Paris).
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 28.
Bernard Berenson. Piero della Francesca or the Ineloquent in Art. New York, 1954, p. 36, pl. 44, calls this a portrait "reduced to mere 'genre'".
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 7, ill. p. 50.
Jean Sutherland Boggs. "Degas Notebooks at the Bibliothèque Nationale III: Group C (1863–1886)." Burlington Magazine 100 (July 1958), p. 243, records a study for this painting in a Degas notebook she date 1866 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Nb 22, p. 31) and mentions similar studies in another notebook dated 1866 (private collection, Paris; now Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Nb 21, p. 6v) [see Ref. Reff 1976, Notebooks].
Jakob Rosenberg. Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso. Cambridge, Mass., 1959, p. 109.
John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. rev., enl. ed. New York, 1961, p. 207, ill. p. 176.
Jean Sutherland Boggs. Portraits by Degas. Berkeley, 1962, pp. 23, 32, 57, 59, 131, pl. 46, calls it "James Tissot" and dates it 1866; remarks that for Degas "portraiture was a concentration upon the individual and expressive character of the human body through which the lassitude, even the slight anxiety, of a man like Tissot could be revealed"; compares this picture to Manet's "Portrait of Emile Zola" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
Mina Curtiss, ed. My Friend Degas.. By Daniel Halévy. Middletown, Conn., 1964, p. 95 n. 6.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 62–64, ill., call it "Jacques Joseph Tissot" and identify the framed picture behind Tissot as a portrait of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, by Cranach.
Theodore Reff. "Pissarro's Portrait of Cézanne." Burlington Magazine 109 (November 1967), p. 628.
Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill.
Theodore Reff. "The Pictures within Degas's Pictures." Metropolitan Museum Journal 1 (1968), pp. 125, 127, 131, 133–40, 150, 152 n. 97, pp. 161–62, 164–66, figs. 10, 11, 13, 15, 17 (overall and details), discusses the paintings in the background as completely invented yet "equally indicative of interests shared by Degas and Tissot": a copy after a Cranach portrait (Musée du Louvre, Paris), a Western depiction of Japanese women in a garden, two contemporary landscapes, one similar to Tissot's "Déjeuner sur l'Herbe" (about 1865; Private collection), and a "Finding of Moses" reminiscent of seventeenth century Venetian painting; calls these pictures assertions of the "relevance for modern art of several distinctly opposed tendencies" that convey the "ideal of sophistication and self-awareness which [Degas] has also expressed in personal terms in his image of the artist as a dandy"; notes that this picture was too early to have been included in the 1879 Impressionist exhibition [see Ref. Lafond 1919].
Henri Zerner. "The Return of 'James' Tissot." Art News 67 (March 1968), p. 33, ill.
Ronald Pickvance. Degas: Pastels and Drawings. Exh. cat., Nottingham University Art Gallery. Nottingham, 1969, unpaginated, under no. 11.
Fiorella Minervino inL'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970, pp. 96–97, no. 240, ill.
Mark Roskill. Van Gogh, Gauguin, and the Impressionist Circle. Greenwich, Conn., 1970, p. 128, pl. 101, dates it about 1866–67 and compares it to Gauguin's "Portrait of Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers" (1888; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).
Richard Ormond. John Singer Sargent: Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors. New York, 1970, p. 20, compares it to Sargent's "Madame Ramón Subercaseaux" (1880, Señora Amalia Barros de Griffin, Santiago).
Theodore Reff inFrom Realism to Symbolism: Whistler and His World. Exh. cat., Wildenstein. New York, 1971, p. 28, states that Degas's interest in Japanese art first appears in this picture.
John Walsh Jr. Portrait of the Artist. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1972, p. 14, no. 22, remarks that it is uncertain if this picture represents Degas's or Tissot's studio.
Theodore Reff. "Degas's 'Tableau de Genre'." Art Bulletin 54 (September 1972), p. 331.
John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. 4th rev. ed. New York, 1973, p. 207, ill. p. 176.
Charles S. Moffett inImpressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 76–79, no. 11, ill. (color) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," Éditions des musées nationaux, Paris], calls it "Jacques Joseph (James) Tissot" and dates it about 1866–68.
Edith Hoffmann. "Impressionists at the Grand Palais." Burlington Magazine 116 (November 1974), p. 699.
Denny Carter. "A Symbolist Portrait by Edmond Aman-Jean." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62 (January 1975), pp. 6, 10 nn. 9, 10, fig. 8, dates it about 1866 and compares it to Aman-Jean's "Portrait of a Woman (Meditation)" (about 1891; Cleveland Museum of Art).
Theodore Reff. Degas, The Artist's Mind. [New York], 1976, pp. 28, 90, 98, 101, 103–7, 110, 138, 140, 144–45, 223–24, 307 n. 44, p. 319 n. 177, figs. 68, 69, 71, 73, 75 (overall and details).
Theodore Reff. The Notebooks of Edgar Degas: A Catalogue of the Thirty-Eight Notebooks in the Bibliothèque Nationale and Other Collections. Oxford, 1976, vol. 1, pp. 108 (notebook 21, p. 6v), 110–11 (notebook 22, p. 31), catalogues two studies for this picture, one a thumbnail sketch and the other a drawing of the figure's torso and right arm; illustrates both in vol. 2.
Theodore Reff. "Degas: A Master among Masters." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 34 (Spring 1977), p. [11], fig. 15 (color).
Thomas B. Hess. "Communicating Degas." New York Magazine (March 28, 1977), p. 74.
Frank Whitford. Japanese Prints and Western Painters. New York, 1977, p. 150, pl. 87.
Eduard Hüttinger. Degas. New York, 1978, p. 41, ill. p. 16 (color).
Michael Justin Wentworth Minneapolis Institute of Arts. James Tissot: Catalogue Raisonné of his Prints. Minneapolis, 1978, p. 48, under no. 5, fig. 5a, compares the composition to Tissot's "Portrait of Mlle L.L." (1864; Musée d'Orsay) and the sitter's pose to his "Marguerite à l'église" (about 1861; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin).
Charles S. Moffett. Degas: Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1979, pp. 7–8, colorpl. 9, dates it 1866–68.
Ian Dunlop. Degas. New York, 1979, p. 57, pl. 51, dates it 1866–68 in the text and 1868 in the caption.
Ian Thomson. "Tissot and Oxford." Oxford Art Journal 2 (April 1979), pp. 54–55.
Christopher Lloyd and Anne Distel inPissarro. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. London, 1980, p. 104, under no. 38.
T[heodore]. R[eff]. in Gabriel P. Weisberg. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing, 1830–1900. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1980, p. 175, under no. 149.
Eugénie de Keyser. Degas: Réalité et métaphore. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1981, pp. 50, 104.
Jacques Dufwa. Winds from the East: A Study in the Art of Manet, Degas, Monet and Whistler 1856–86. Stockholm, 1981, pp. 89–95, 104, 115, 187, 203 nn. 22, 26, fig. 70, asserts that the cutting and overlapping of the pictures within this painting borrow from the asymmetrical perspectives found in Japanese art; interprets these pictures as references to the creativity of the artist and finds similarities to the Japanese "use of chance to show how the theme appears to our eyes at a given moment".
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov. Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, 1981, p. 110, under no. 8.
Susan Koslow. "Two Sources for Vincent van Gogh's 'Portrait of Armand Roulin': A Character Likeness and a Portrait Schema." Arts Magazine 56 (September 1981), pp. 159, 163 n. 36, fig. 4, calls the copy of a Cranach portrait within this picture a symbolic and literal father figure for Tissot and Degas.
Keith Roberts. Degas. rev., enl. ed. [1st ed., 1976]. Oxford, 1982, unpaginated, colorpl. 7, dates it 1868.
Michael Wentworth. James Tissot. Oxford, 1984, pp. 49, 59, pl. 37, compares it to Tissot's "Self-Portrait" (about 1865; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco).
Roy McMullen. Degas: His Life, Times, and Work. Boston, 1984, pp. 134, 145.
Charles F. Stuckey inDegas: Form and Space. Ed. Maurice Guillaud. Exh. cat., Centre Culturel du Marais. Paris, 1984, pp. 20, 60 n. 38, fig. 67 (color).
Michael Wentworth inJames Tissot. Ed. Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz. Exh. cat., Barbican Art Gallery, London. Oxford, 1984, pp. 12–14, 16–17, 94 n. 2, under no. 2, fig. 1, describes this picture as a series of paradoxes, portraying "Tissot's public pose as a dandy and boulevardier" while allowing a "glimpse beneath the surface to the troubled world of anxieties and contradictions that marked the man himself and formed the basis of his art".
Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz inJames Tissot. Ed. Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz. Exh. cat., Barbican Art Gallery Gallery, London. Oxford, 1984, p. 100, mentions that the picture depicted on the easel at the right of this work is similar to Tissot's "Dejeuner sur l'herbe" (cat. no. 15, Goldschmidt collection) [see also Ref. Reff 1968].
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 56, 58–59, 250, ill. in color (overall and detail).
Richard Thomson in "Notes on Degas's Sense of Humour." Degas 1834–1984. Ed. Richard Kendall. Manchester, 1985, p. 10, dates it about 1866–68; notes that Degas changed the sitter's pose from the preparatory drawing (Fogg Art Museum) in order to better reveal Tissot's character.
Melissa McQuillan. Impressionist Portraits. London, 1986, pp. 60–61, ill. (color).
Richard Thomson. The Private Degas. Exh. cat., Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. London, 1987, pp. 26–27, fig. 23.
John Milner. The Studios of Paris: The Capital of Art in the Late Nineteenth Century. New Haven, 1988, p. 33, pl. 35.
Michael Pantazzi inDegas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, pp. 249, 263.
Henri Loyrette inDegas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, pp. 105, 112, 124, 128, 130–32, 142, no. 75, ill. (color), calls it "James Tissot" and dates it 1867–68; asserts that the setting is not any particular artist's studio, interpreting the pictures within the picture as references to Tissot's eclectic artistic production; finds similarities between the figure of Pharaoh's daughter in the Finding of Moses canvas and the title figure in Degas's "Mlle Fiocre in the Ballet 'La Source'" (1867–68; Brooklyn Museum, New York); considers the stern visage of Frederick the Wise in the Cranach copy to represent a warning to Tissot about the precariousness of becoming a fashionable artist.
Barbara Scott. "The Triumph of Degas." Apollo 127 (April 1988), p. 282.
Eunice Lipton. "Anxiety at The Met." Artforum 27 (October 1988), p. 102, ill., calls it "James Tissot in an Artist's Studio".
Nobuo Nakatani inEdgar Degas. Ed. Mie Prefectural Art Museum and Tokyo Shinbun. Exh. cat., Isetan Museum of Art. Tokyo, 1988, p. 244, calls the friezelike painting at rear a Western imitation of a Japanese scene.
Henri Loyrette. "Degas entre Gustave Moreau et Duranty. Notes sur les portraits 1859–1876." Revue de l'art no. 86 (1989), pp. 20, 22–23, fig. 16.
"Lettres de Degas provenant de fonds divers." Degas inédit. Paris, 1989, p. 357.
Henri Loyrette. Degas. Paris, 1991, pp. 187, 205, 216, 220, ill.
Carol Armstrong. Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas. Chicago, 1991, pp. 103–4, 140, fig. 50.
Patrick Bade. Degas. London, 1991, pp. 62–63, ill. (color), calls it "James Tissot in an Artist's Studio".
Anne Higonnet. Berthe Morisot's Images of Women. Cambridge, Mass., 1992, pp. 125–27, 292, fig. 42, calls it "Portrait of the Painter James Tissot" and dates it 1868.
Henri Loyrette. Degas: The Man and His Art. New York, 1993, pp. 38–39, ill. (color detail).
Henri Loyrette inOrigins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 204, 222–23, 296, 370–72, 374–75, 463, no. 62, fig. 227 (color) and ill. pp. 182 (color detail), 374 (overall) [French ed., Paris, pp. 203, 219, 222–23, 296, 369–70, 373, 461, fig. 277 (color), ill. pp. 182, 373].
Jean Sutherland Boggs inDegas Portraits. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. London, 1994, p. 24 [German ed., "Degas Die Portraits"].
Emil Maurer inDegas Portraits. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. London, 1994, pp. 100, 106, ill. p. 107, notes that Degas's implicit criticism of his sitter is "discernible only at a second glance".
Barbara Stern Shapiro inDegas Portraits. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. London, 1994, p. 141.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 449, ill., as "James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836–1902)".
Linda Nochlin in Colin B. Bailey. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. New Haven, 1997, pp. 60–62, 100, 271 n. 15, compares it to Renoir's "Frédéric Bazille Painting 'The Heron'" (1867; Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
Colta Ives inThe Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 248–49, fig. 333 (color), notes that the Japanese themed picture within this painting is similar to the type painted by Tissot.
Carol Vogel. "Inside Art: Tracing Degas's Taste." New York Times (February 21, 1997), p. C21, ill. (detail).
Dianne W. Pitman. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. University Park, Pa., 1998, pp. 145, 156, fig. 92.
Important 19th Century European Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. Sotheby's, New York. November 3, 1999, p. 136, fig. 1.
John House in Sona Johnston. Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, 1999, pp. 12, 19.
Sona Johnston and Susan Bollendorf inFaces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. Ed. Sona Johnston. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, 1999, p. 88, no. 25, ill. in color, frontispiece and p. 89 (detail and overall), date it about 1866–68.
Frances Fowle inDegas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, p. 124.
Claire I. R. O'Mahony inDegas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, pp. 126–27, no. 22, ill. (color), dates it about 1867–68.
Phaedra Siebert inDegas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, p. 249.
David A. Brenneman inDegas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, p. 57, ill. p. 47 (color detail).
Sylvie Patry inBerthe Morisot, 1841–1895. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. Martigny, 2002, p. 29, fig. 6.
Petra Buschhoff-Leineweber inEdouard Manet und die Impressionisten. Exh. cat., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Stuttgart, 2002, pp. 167–68, 177 n. 72, fig. 201.
Gary Tinterow in Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2003, pp. 56, 474–75, no. 105, fig. 1.59 (color) and ill. p. 474, asserts that this picture depicts Tissot's studio, noting that the Japanese themed canvas and the one on the easel have been recently identified as works by Tissot; suggests that Tissot also painted the copy of the Cranach portrait; compares the composition and the sense of having captured the artist pausing for a single moment with Velázquez's "Las Meninas" (1656; Museo del Prado, Madrid).
Fiorella Minervino inDegas: Classico e moderno. Ed. Maria Teresa Benedetti. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2004, p. 60, fig. 6.
Gary Tinterow and Asher Ethan Miller inThe Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, p. 400.
Vanessa Gavioli inDegas. English ed. [1st ed., Milan, 2003]. New York, 2005, pp. 82–83, 180, ill. (color and black and white).
Alexander Sturgis inRebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 2006, pp. 126–27, no. 43, ill. (color), remarks that none of the pictures within the painting are by Tissot and notes that each historical picture is "paired with its 'modern' equivalent—the final pairing being between the Cranach and Degas's portrait itself".
Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall. Degas and the Art of Japan. Exh. cat., Reading Public Museum. Reading, Pa., 2007, pp. 16, 99 n. 40, fig. 11 (color), compare the large horizontal canvas in the background to Utamaro's woodblock print triptych "The Cultivation of Brocade Prints, A Famous Product of Edo".
Gary Tinterow inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 96–97, 206–7, no. 66, ill. (color and black and white) and fig. 12 (installation photo).
Laurence des Cars. "Acquisitions: Jacques James Joseph Tissot." 48/14: La revue du Musée d'Orsay no. 25 (Autumn 2007), p. 42, observes that it depicts Tissot as a dandy and as recently “arrived”.
Richard Kendall inNineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Ed. Sarah Lees. Williamstown, Mass., 2012, vol. 1, pp. 259, 262 n. 6, under no. 111.
Guy Cogeval and Stéphane Guégan inImpressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, pp. 149, 151, fig. 2 (color) [French ed., "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," Paris, p. 218, fig. 17 (color)].
Robert Lethbridge inPerspectives on Manet. Ed. Therese Dolan. Farnham, Surrey, 2012, p. 108.
Anett Göthe inDegas: Klassik und Experiment. Ed. Alexander Eiling. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Munich, 2014, pp. 54, 56, 65 n. 1, fig. 1 (color).
MaryAnne Stevens inDegas: Klassik und Experiment. Ed. Alexander Eiling. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Munich, 2014, p. 47.
Roberta Crisci-Richardson. Mapping Degas: Real Spaces, Symbolic Spaces and Invented Spaces in the Life and Work of Edgar Degas (1834–1917). Newcastle upon Tyne, 2015, pp. 164–66, 179 n. 73, fig. 5-8, states that the portrait may celebrate Tissot's move to a new studio on the fashionable side of Paris; notes that it follows the Romantic iconography of the melancholic artist in his studio, comparing it to Delacroix's "Michelangelo in his Studio" (1849–50, Musée Fabre, Montpellier) and Savoldo's "Self-Portrait" (2nd quarter 16th century, Musée du Louvre, Paris); posits that the portrait confirms that the legend of Tissot living in a mansion was just a myth created by the press.
Henri Loyrette. Degas: A New Vision. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne, 2016, p. 24.
Beat Wismer inLucas Cranach der Ältere: Meister—Marke—Moderne. Ed. Gunnar Heydenreich et al. Exh. cat., Museum Kunstpalast. Düsseldorf, 2017, p. 89, fig. 1 (color, cropped).
Ann Hoenigswald and Kimberly A. Jones. "The Question of Finish in the Work of Edgar Degas." Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History 3 (2017), p. 22.
Cyrille Sciama inThe EY Exhibition—Impressionists in London: French Artists in Exile 1870–1904. Ed. Caroline Corbeau-Parsons. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2017, p. 82 [French ed., "Les Impressionnistes à Londres: Artistes français en exil, 1870–1904," Paris, p. 81].
John Elderfield in John Elderfield Mary Morton and Xavier Rey. Cézanne Portraits. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Princeton, 2017, pp. 32, 251, fig. 14 (color), contrasts the figure's "eager-to-please" appearance to Cézanne's "non-pose" in works like his "Self-Portrait with Palette" (ca. 1890, Emil Bührle Collection, Zürich).
John Elderfield inCézanne portraits. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2017, p. 36, fig. 16 (color).
Henri Loyrette inDegas à l'Opéra. Ed. Henri Loyrette. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2019, pp. 64–65, 74, fig. 67 (color) [English ed., London, 2020].
Paul Perrin inJames Tissot: L'ambigu moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2019, pp. 14, 320–21, no. 2, ill. p. 15 (color).
Geneviève Aitken inJames Tissot: L'ambigu moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2019, p. 77, cites Berthe Morisot's portrait "Julie Manet and her Greyhound Laërtes" (1884, Réunion des Musées Métropolitains Rouen Normandie) as including at rear a triptych in pastels much like the one depicted high on the wall in The Met's picture; questions whether the Japoniste picture-in-picture Degas presents could be an authentic Japanese object, as in the Morisot, or a pastiche.
Theodore Reff, ed. The Letters of Edgar Degas.. By Edgar Degas. New York, 2020, vol. 3, p. 357.
Dorothee Hansen inManet and Astruc: Friendship and Inspiration. Ed. Dorothee Hansen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen. Madrid, 2021, p. 18, fig. 11 (color), states that Tissot is not depicted in his own studio, noting that the coat, hat, and cane indicate that he is a visitor.
Alice Gudera inManet and Astruc: Friendship and Inspiration. Ed. Dorothee Hansen. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen. Madrid, 2021, p. 73.
Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley E. Dunn. Manet/Degas. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2023, p. 292, colorpl. 87.
Isolde Pludermacher inManet/Degas. Ed. Laurence des Cars, Stéphane Guégan, and Isolde Pludermacher. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2023, pp. 17, 66.
Manet/Degas. Ed. Laurence des Cars, Stéphane Guégan, and Isolde Pludermacher. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2023, p. 257, colorpl. 46.
Richard Thomson. "Pairings of Works by Manet and Degas Explore Their Competitive Friendship and Reveal the Artists' Contrasting Talents." Burlington Magazine 165 (June 2023), p. 638.
At one time, the sitter was identified as the artist Jules Finot, but several drawing studies confirm this picture to be a portrait of Degas's friend, the painter James Tissot. Three of the drawings were included in Degas's third atelier sale: two figure studies (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.; private collection, Paris) and one sheet with two studies of the head (private collection). The Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, owns two notebooks containing a thumbnail sketch of the composition and a study of the torso and right arm (Nb21, p. 6v; Nb22, p. 31).
The small picture on the wall behind Tissot is one of numerous portraits of Cranach of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. For tentative identifications of the other pictures, see Reff (1968).
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