James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 4 June 2009, lot 110;

Where purchased by the present owner.

Shortly after his relocation to London in 1871, Tissot began a series of paintings depicting life beside the river Thames; figures waiting on jetties, boarding ships and sat in the shadowed interiors of taverns. The present study depicts a tavern on the Thames at Greenwich, with the Royal Hospital building seen through the window. The wooden chairs also appear in The Departure, the first picture in Tissot's series entitled The Prodigal Son. These rapidly-painted oil sketches were typical of Tissot's working practice, often made on small boards or canvases prepared with a red-brown ground. This carefully constructed setting serves as a theatrical backdrop for the personal subject matter, as Tissot muses upon his admiration for his lover Kathleen Newton who appears to be reading a letter, perhaps outloud to her male companion. As Malcolm Warner notes ‘In creating a body of work unified by the theme of England’s major river, he laid claim to a subject literally and figuratively at the heart of the country.’ (M. Warner, James Tissot: Victorian Life/Modern Love, 1999, p. 61.)