James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot

Sale: Parke-Bernet, New York, October 5, 1961, lot 51
Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 20, 1972, lot 96
Carpenter-Deforge, Paris
Sale: Sotheby's, London, November 22, 1983, lot 60, illustrated
Stair-Sainty Fine Art Inc., New York (until 1984)
D. C. Dueck
Private collection

London, Art Council of Great Britain, James Tissot, 1984, no. 124

Willard E. Misfeldt, The Albums of James Tissot, p. 62, illustrated fig. 111-22;
Michael Wentworth, James Tissot, 1984, illustrated fig. 163
James Tissot: 1836-1902, exh. cat., Barbican Art Gallery, London, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and Musée du Petit Palias, Paris, November 1984 - June 1985, p. 216, illustrated fig. 79
Michael Wentworth, James Tissot: Catalogue Raisonné of his Prints, 1987, p. 233, illustrated pl. 53 

STRUCTURE This panel is flat and does not appear to have bowed. CATALOGUE COMPARISON The illustration is broadly representative PAINT SURFACE The paint surface is clean and the colours are bright throughout. There is very fine surface craquelure but this is only visible upon very close inspection and the paint surface appears to be stable. The picture is ready to hang. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There is a very small area of retouching to the right of the older girl's head and an area in the shadows between the girls' legs. These retouchings are not visible to the naked eye. FRAME This picture is contained in a moulded plaster frame.
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The Elder Sister, like most of Tissot's paintings from 1879-1882, depicts his mistress, Kathleen Newton, set against the backdrop of his home at 14 Grove End Road in St. John's Wood. Here, she is shown with her young niece, Lilian Hervey, and the two have been recast as sisters. Tissot often gave his paintings fictional names, such as The Widower or The Orphan, perhaps believing that this would appeal to the Victorian taste for genre and narrative. Kathleen is lost in thought, almost daydreaming, while the young Lilian is sucking her thumb and leaning against her aunt. This childish posture, while so natural, was rarely depicted in paintings of contemporary children of the time (N. R. Marshall and M. Warner, James Tissot, Victorian Love, Modern Life, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1999, p. 138). It may have appealed to Tissot as a detail of modern life. Indeed, the painting is based on two photographs, each of which depict Kathleen seated on the steps of Tissot's conservatory (figs. 1 and 2). In the painting, Tissot combinses the gestures depicted in the photographs; Lilian sucking her thumb and Kathleen daydreaming. The figures, who appear replaced by a cat sleeping on a chair. The evolution from photograph to painting and eventually to a print provides a glimpse into Tissot's working method in choosing a subject and setting up a composition. He always seduces the viewer with his attention to detail, whether in a painting or in a black-and-white print, and never fails to provide a veritable feast for the eyes.