Cleveland Museum of Art

The Lovers

James Tissot

Date

1872

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

James Tissot lived in London in 1871–82 where he established a reputation as painter of elegantly dressed women in modern, fashionable settings. This painting, made at the beginning of his London period, was designed to appeal to Victorian audiences who enjoyed art that hinted at narrative. Here, a young couple enters an upholstered interior, leaving a sunlit garden. The woman’s gesture suggests contemplation; might she be considering a proposal made by the man who follows closely behind her? Their exchange, ultimately, remains mysterious. James Tissot was close friends with Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and Berthe Morisot, but declined Degas’s invitation to participate in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874.

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