"Sur l'Herbe"

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(1880)

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"Sur l'Herbe", 1880, etching and drypoint, 197xx270mm;  7 1/4" x 10 5/8"; full margins.  Second state (of 2).  Edition size 100. A very good, dark impression, aside from some very minor unobtrusive printers cockling, [Wentworth 50; Misfeldt 43].

James Jacques Tissot (1836-1902) began etching in 1860 with the art form's popular revival, but then stopped after 1861 and did not etch again until 1875.  Mrs. Kathleen Newton (1854-1882) was Tissot's primary model during the period of his most intense printmaking activities, appearing in two dozen of his prints.  Until her untimely death of tuberculosis at the age of 28 in the autumn of 1882, Kathleen Newton was the center of Tissot's art and life. The beautiful divorcee was Tissot's muse and his art a celebration of her beauty.  After Kathleen's death, Tissot returned to Paris and abandoned graphic work almost entirely, working nearly exclusively on illustrating the Old and New Testaments.

"Sur l'Herbe" (On the Grass) is a work that is probably based upon a photograph.  There is no related painting for "Sur l'Herbe". The Image was not reversed before it was transferred to the plate as the two colonnades in the background appear reversed of their actual position. The subjects are Kathleen Newton, her daughter Violet, and her younger niece Lilian in St. John's Wood. In this second state (of 2), Tissot etched additional vertical strokes for grass over the entire area of the lawn nearly obliterating his signature and date in the plate.

"Sur l'Herbe" is in a smooth black and red highlighted 23 1/8" x 26" frame with a raised gold leaf pattern lip. The moss suede outer, wine colored middle beveled accent and inner earth tone 4-ply mats are acid and lignin free and are protected with Acrylite-AR OP3 (UV) by CYRO .......   SOLD