Women of Paris Circus Lover by Tissot in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

Women of Paris: The Circus Lover

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836–1902)

1885

Medium/Technique Oil on canvas

Dimensions 147.3 x 101.6 cm (58 x 40 in.)

Credit Line Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection

Accession Number58.45

Collections: Europe

Classifications: Paintings

Like his friend and Impressionist artist Edgar Degas, Tissot chose his subjects from modern urban life. His precise and detailed style, however, was more closely related to conservative academic painting. This work belongs to a series called “Women of Paris,” fifteen large paintings that depict women of different social classes. In each, the women are encountered as if by chance at various occupations and amusements. Here, the woman glances directly at us, making us participants in the scene. The event depicted is a “highlife circus,” in which the amateur performers were members of the aristocracy.

InscriptionsLower left: J. J. Tissot
Provenance1885, with Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris. 1886, with Arthur Tooth and Son, London [see note 1]. 1889, E. Simon; March 30, 1889, anonymous (Simon) sale, Christie's, London, lot 143, to Mr. King [see note 2]. After about 1901, William Marchant and Co., London [see note 3]. Mrs. Arthur Henniker (Florence Ellen Hungerford Milnes) (b. 1855 - d. 1923), London; to her nephew, Gerald Milnes Fitzgerald (b. 1883 - d. 1978), London [see note 4]; July 26, 1957, anonymous (Fitzgerald) sale, Christie's, London, lot 100, to Mr. Lloyd, director of Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London; 1958, sold by Marlborough Fine Art to the MFA for $5000 [see note 5]. (Accession Date: February 13, 1958)

NOTES:
[1] This painting was one in a series by Tissot, "Quinze Tableaux sur la Femme à Paris," exhibitied at the Galerie Sedelmeyer, April 19 - June 15, 1885, cat. no. 11 ("Les Femmes de sport"). It was exhibited at the Tooth Gallery, 1886, in "Pictures of Parisian Life" (cat. no. 7, "The Amateur Circus"). See Michael Wentworth, "James Tissot" (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984), Appendix V.

[2] Ten "Pictures illustrating Parisian Life" by Tissot were included in this sale, all consigned by Mr. Simon.

[3] Notes in the curatorial file indicate that there is a label on the reverse of the stretcher from William Marchant and Co., The Goupil Gallery, London. William Marchant purchased the premises of the former gallery Goupil and Co. in 1901.

[4] According to information enclosed in a letter from Christie, Manson, and Woods to the MFA (May 15, 1961), the painting belonged to Mrs. Henniker. This provenance information is not provided in the 1957 Christie's catalogue. Florence Henniker's sister, Amicia Henrietta Milnes, married Gerald Fitzgerald; their son was Gerald Milnes Fitzgerald. He lent the painting to the exhibition "James Tissot (1836-1902): An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings" (Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, May 1955), cat. no. 45.

Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/33605/women-of-paris-the-circus-lover