Wednesday, December 23, 2009

James Tissot


Above is an example of the art of James Tissot that I have been familiar with -- Victorian paintings of elegant society women.

It was a surprise to discover in a recent article in the New York Times that the same James Tissot also created an astounding 700 images illustrating the entire New Testament, and the start of the Old Testament. (He died before he finished illustrating the Old Testament.) These were created over the span of a decade, following a dream he had in which he saw a vision of Jesus administering to people within a ruined building. The dream inspired him to leave Paris and journey to Palestine to research and begin this massive project.


124 of these paintings are now on display at the Brooklyn Museum, which owns 500 drawings, watercolors, and oils from the series.



Here is a link to the article in the New York Times describing the exhibit, which includes a slide show of several of the images:


And here is a link to the catalog, if, like me unfortunately, you won't get to Brooklyn by January 17 to see it in person: http://shop.brooklynmuseum.org/jatica.html

No comments: