James Tissot
French, 1836–1902
Chrysanthemums
c. 1874–76
The woman in Chrysanthemums is almost overwhelmed by the brilliant blooms surrounding her. She has rolled up her sleeves to adjust a pot, her blurred features suggesting we have caught a glimpse of her in motion. Tissot staged this scene in the conservatory attached to his studio, a glass panel of which is visible in the picture’s top left corner. Conservatories were associated with the “cultivation” of proper Victorian women as well as with nurturing plants, associations that add nuance to this scene of intimate domesticity.
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 46 5/8 x 30 in. (118.4 x 76.2 cm) Frame: 57 15/16 x 41 1/4 in. (147.2 x 104.8 cm) |
| Object Number | 1994.2 |
| Acquisition | Acquired in honor of David S. Brooke (Institute Director, 1977–94), 1994 |
| Status | On View |
Image Caption
James Tissot, Chrysanthemums, c. 1874–76, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, Acquired in honor of David S Brooke Institute Director, , 1994.2
Select Bibliography
Grosvenor Gallery. Exhibition Catalogue. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1877.
Marshall, Nancy Rose and Malcolm Warner. James Tissot: Victorian Life/Modern Love. Exhibition catalogue. New York: American Federation of Arts; NEw Haven: Yale Center for British Art; 2000. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.. Gloria Victis! Victors and Vanquished in French Art, 1848-1910.. May 29-October 15, 2000.. James Laver. Vulgar Society: The Romantic Career of James Tissot, 1836-1902. London.. 1936.. Michael Wentworth.. James Tissot.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.. 1984.. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Anonymous. "Nineteenth-Century Painting and Sculpture." The Magazine Antiques 152 (October 1997): 522–31. Flemming Friborg (editor).. Gloria Victis!. Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.. 2001.. Michael Wentworth.. James Tissot.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.. 1984.. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Rand, Richard. "Recent Acquisitions (19942005) at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute." The Burlington Magazine 147, no. 1225 (April 2005): 293300. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011.EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY
Provenance
Edward Hermon, London (by 1877–82, his sale, Christie’s, London, 13 May 1882, no. 80, sold to Tooth); [Arthur Tooth and Son, London, from 1882]; Surgeon-Major John Ewart Martin, South Africa; private collection, South Africa, by descent from Martin; sale, Phillips, London, 14 Dec. 1993, no. 67; [Christopher Wood Gallery, London, sold to the Clark, 1994]; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1994.
