From Library Journal
Known for his sumptuous and elegant portrayals of well-turned-out Victorian society, Tissot has not had a scholarly museum exhibition in over 30 years--until now. James Tissot is the catalog accompanying a recent traveling exhibition of this artist's work, curated by Marshall and Warner (of the Yale Center for British Art). Their book portrays Tissot as "the painter of modern life"--in the Baudelairian sense. Although formally conservative in painting technique, they argue, Tissot was one of the best observers of life in the 19th century, focusing on the complex manners and morals of Victorian society. This argument is presented in the introductory essay as well as in the thorough catalog entries of the artist's paintings and prints. The other recent general monograph on the subject of Tissot, Russell Ash's James Tissot (Abrams, 1992), has beautiful plates but is not as strong a book, with very short entries on the paintings and a cursory bibliography. Recommended for art libraries and academic libraries supporting art programs. On a more sophisticated level, Seductive Surfaces is an anthology of essays written by scholars in the fields of art history, literature, and costume history. Applying Marxist and feminist methodology, these interdisciplinary essays examine a range of topics, including the influence of popular print sources such as the fashion plate in Tissot's paintings and his portrayal of women as "commodified status symbols" depicted through an elegant veneer. This detailed study is a nice complement to the exhibition catalog but is only recommended for libraries that support upper-level programs in art history and 19th-century studies.
-Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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