James Tissot Le Banc de Jardin Mezzotint Etching on Paper Beraldi 66 Edition

A realism style mezzotint etching on paper titled “Le Banc de Jardin (The Garden Bench)” by French artist James Tissot. Signed in the plate. From the Beraldi 66 edition, 1st state. Published in 1881. The artist created a series of mezzotint etchings from his painting with the same title. A dreamy and idealized composition of children with an elegant woman dressed in the Belle Epoque style. The models for the composition were Kathleen Newton, her daughter Violet, her niece Belle, and her son Cecil, seated on a bench draped in fur in Tissot’s garden in St. John's Wood, London. Le Banc Jardin is one of a small group of mezzotint studies that Tissot made in England between 1883 and 1885. A prime example of Tissot’s brilliant execution of the printmaking method. From a private collection who acquired the artwork from Donald Morris Gallery in Detroit, MI. Original gallery tag on verso. Dimensions: 25”h x 30.5”w x .75”d (framed). In very good vintage condition.

James Tissot (1836-1902) was a French painter, illustrator, and caricaturist. He was born to a drapery merchant and a milliner and decided to pursue a career in art at a young age, coming to incorporate elements of realism, early Impressionism, and academic art into his work. He is best known for a variety of genre paintings of contemporary European high society produced during the peak of his career, which focused on the people and women's fashion of the Belle Époque and Victorian England, but he would also explore many medieval, biblical, and Japoniste subjects throughout his life. His career included work as a caricaturist for Vanity Fair under the pseudonym of Coïdé. Tissot served in the Franco-Prussian War on the side of France and later the Paris Commune before moving to London in 1871, where he would find further success as an artist as well as meet Irishwoman Kathleen Newton, who came to live with him as a close companion and muse until her death in 1882. Tissot maintained close relations with the Impressionist movement for much of his life, including James Abbott Whistler and friend and protégé Edgar Degas. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1894.