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Women of Paris: The Circus Lover
James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836–1902)
1885
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
147.3 x 101.6 cm (58 x 40 in.)
Credit Line
Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection
Accession Number58.45
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Like the Impressionists, particularly his friend Edgar Degas, Tissot chose his subjects from modern urban life. His precise, detailed, and anecdotal style, however, was more closely related to conservative academic painting. This work belongs to a series called La Femme à Paris (Women of Paris), eighteen large paintings that depict women of different social classes encountered as if by chance at various occupations and amusements. Here, the woman engages the viewer as a participant in the action by her direct glance out of the picture. The event is a "high-life circus," in which the amateur performers were members of the aristocracy.
InscriptionsLower left: J. J. Tissot
Provenance1885, with Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris. 1886, with Arthur Tooth and Son, London [see note 1]. 1889, E. Simon; March 30, 1889, anonymous (Simon) sale, Christie's, London, lot 143, to Mr. King [see note 2]. After about 1901, William Marchant and Co., London [see note 3]. Mrs. Arthur Henniker (Florence Ellen Hungerford Milnes) (b. 1855 - d. 1923), London; to her nephew, Gerald Milnes Fitzgerald (b. 1883 - d. 1978), London [see note 4]; July 26, 1957, anonymous (Fitzgerald) sale, Christie's, London, lot 100, to Mr. Lloyd, director of Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London; 1958, sold by Marlborough Fine Art to the MFA for $5000 [see note 5]. (Accession Date: February 13, 1958)
NOTES:
[1] This painting was one in a series by Tissot, "Quinze Tableaux sur la Femme à Paris," exhibitied at the Galerie Sedelmeyer, April 19 - June 15, 1885, cat. no. 11 ("Les Femmes de sport"). It was exhibited at the Tooth Gallery, 1886, in "Pictures of Parisian Life" (cat. no. 7, "The Amateur Circus"). See Michael Wentworth, "James Tissot" (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984), Appendix V.
[2] Ten "Pictures illustrating Parisian Life" by Tissot were included in this sale, all consigned by Mr. Simon.
[3] Notes in the curatorial file indicate that there is a label on the reverse of the stretcher from William Marchant and Co., The Goupil Gallery, London. William Marchant purchased the premises of the former gallery Goupil and Co. in 1901.
[4] According to information enclosed in a letter from Christie, Manson, and Woods to the MFA (May 15, 1961), the painting belonged to Mrs. Henniker. This provenance information is not provided in the 1957 Christie's catalogue. Florence Henniker's sister, Amicia Henrietta Milnes, married Gerald Fitzgerald; their son was Gerald Milnes Fitzgerald. He lent the painting to the exhibition "James Tissot (1836-1902): An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings" (Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, May 1955), cat. no. 45.
NOTES:
[1] This painting was one in a series by Tissot, "Quinze Tableaux sur la Femme à Paris," exhibitied at the Galerie Sedelmeyer, April 19 - June 15, 1885, cat. no. 11 ("Les Femmes de sport"). It was exhibited at the Tooth Gallery, 1886, in "Pictures of Parisian Life" (cat. no. 7, "The Amateur Circus"). See Michael Wentworth, "James Tissot" (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984), Appendix V.
[2] Ten "Pictures illustrating Parisian Life" by Tissot were included in this sale, all consigned by Mr. Simon.
[3] Notes in the curatorial file indicate that there is a label on the reverse of the stretcher from William Marchant and Co., The Goupil Gallery, London. William Marchant purchased the premises of the former gallery Goupil and Co. in 1901.
[4] According to information enclosed in a letter from Christie, Manson, and Woods to the MFA (May 15, 1961), the painting belonged to Mrs. Henniker. This provenance information is not provided in the 1957 Christie's catalogue. Florence Henniker's sister, Amicia Henrietta Milnes, married Gerald Fitzgerald; their son was Gerald Milnes Fitzgerald. He lent the painting to the exhibition "James Tissot (1836-1902): An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings" (Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, May 1955), cat. no. 45.