Sur l'Herbe. On the Grass. by James J. J. Tissot, 1836-1902

James J. J. Tissot, 1836-1902
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Sur l'Herbe. On the Grass.

Original etching with drypoint in black ink. 1880. Signed in the plate lower right (faint as always in the completed state). From the edition of c.250 impressions printed in Paris c.1883 (probably by Delatre). (50 impressions were printed in London in 1880).
Ref: Tissot 49. Wentworth 50, completed state with the more fully worked foreground.

Excellent rich impression with tone. On heavy cream-toned Van Gelder type paper. Excellent condition. Full margins. Sheet: 11 1/8 x 14 3/4ins. Plate: 7 3/4 x 10 5/8ins (198x270mm)

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This etching is a study of Kathleen Newton and the children in the garden of Tissot's house in St. John's Wood. Richly worked, especially in the completed second state as here, into a wonderful pattern of light and shadow, it illustrates to marvellous effect the atmosphere of a charmed secret life which Tissot wanted to instil into his studies of Kathleen. The sense of an enclosed cut-off world is heightened by the forms of the pond and the colonnade in the garden, and by the way that sitting on the rug Kathleen looks back behind her at us the viewer. Tissot was a marvellous sensitive etcher who knew to perfection how to use rich textures and complex surfaces in his etching to capture light and atmosphere.

It seems likely, as Wentworth suggested in his catalogue of Tissot's etchings, that this composition, like others of the period, was derived from a photograph. Tissot made much use of photographs of his home life as points of departure for his compositions as it enabled him to capture a quality of 'modern realism' which he wanted in order to get away from the idealisation found in so much of the painting of his period.The actual photograph related to this study has not been found.