James Tissot's Embrace of Commercial Pigment Innovations

Imaging and pigment analysis reveal how a 19th-century artist made new materials and techniques his own

Jun 5, 2020

James Tissot (1836–1902) worked during a period of artistic experimentation and changes in technique and materials. Tissot’s friendships with Edgar Degas and James McNeill Whistler, among others, put him in conversation with Impressionism and other artistic movements. His financial success as a painter of London and Paris society gave him the ability to choose high quality artistic materials, including custom panels, canvases, and commercially manufactured tubed oil paints.

James Tissot’s self-portrait was scanned with hyperspectral imaging (HSI) to learn more about his pigment choices.

This project was a interdisciplinary, multi-institutional endeavor between the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and was extended with the collaboration of the Getty and The National Centre for Research and Restoration in French Museums (C2RMF) and Musée d’Orsay. Five of Tissot’s paintings were imaged and mapped using macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) and Reflective Imaging Spectroscopy (RIS) in situ at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where they had been loaned for the retrospective exhibition James Tissot: Faith + Fashion (October 12, 2019–February 9, 2020), which allowed for conservation work on some paintings. The collaboration allowed for parallel study among conservators, researchers, and curators at multiple institutions.

The imaging and spectroscopic analysis allowed for deeper understanding of Tissot’s palette: a mix of traditional and modern pigments. Researchers collated Tissot’s pigments with catalogues from art suppliers to understand how he worked with new colors that were being developed during the second half of the nineteenth century as commercial paint manufacturers created new products. The elemental maps reveal an artist who had the means to select high-end materials and new colors.

Publication:

Kleiner, S, E. Pouyet, L. Hardt Oakley. 2019. “Tissot’s Painting Technique.” In: James Tissot, edited by Melissa E. Buron. Prestel: 238-245.

Presentation:

Kleiner, S. “Behind the Scenes: revealing Tissot’s paint techniques” James Tissot: Fashion and Faith symposium, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. San Francisco, February 8-9, 2020.