Rencontre de Faust et de Marguerite
In the early 1860s, in an effort to regenerate history painting, Tissot was seeking new subjects and a new style. He was strongly influenced by the work of the Belgian painter and engraver Henri Leys (1815-1869). In 1855, Leys was awarded a medal of honour at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Critics had been delighted with the high quality of his reconstructions of centuries past through costume and architecture, the realistic poses and facial expressions, the rigorous drawing and the brightness of the colours.
It is exactly these attributes that are found in this painting of Tissot's produced five years later. Moreover, like Leys in his painting Promenade hors les murs (Belgium, Royal Collections), a painting exhibited in 1855, the young French painter took his inspiration for the subject from Goethe's Faust published in 1808. By taking their inspiration from works of literature, these artists revived the subjects of history painting.
Here he produced an eclectic pastiche of 15th and 16th century paintings: the smooth finish, the highly detailed drawing recalls the style of the German and Flemish primitives, as do the details in the decoration and the architecture.
- 1860, acquis par l'Etat pour le musée du Luxembourg (arrêté du 17/07/1860)
- de 1863 à 1907, musée du Luxembourg, Paris
- 1907, ministère de l'Intérieur, Paris
- Dépôt de l'Etat
- de 1960 à 1982, mairie, Le Chambon-Feugerolles
- 1982, affecté au musée d'Orsay, Paris (attribution du F.N.A.C. en 1983)
- 1983, attribué au musée du Louvre, Paris
- Salon - palais des Champs Elysées - France, Paris, 1861, n°2972
- Exposition Universelle - Champ-de-Mars - France, Paris, 1889, n°626
- 1789-1889 - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1974, n°226
- Le musée du Luxembourg en 1874 - Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris - France, Paris, 1985, n°2
- Paris-Bruxelles/Bruxelles-Paris - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1997, n°28
- Paris-Bruxelles/Bruxelles-Paris - musée des Beaux-Arts - Belgique, Gand, 1997, n°28
- Gloria Victis ! Tradition og nybrud i fransk kunst 1848-1910 - Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek - Danemark, Copenhague, 2000, n°19
- Regards sur le Moyen-Age, le XIXe siècle de Viollet-le-Duc - musée de Saint-Antoine-L'Abbaye - France, Saint-Antoine-L'Abbaye, 2004
- James Tissot (1836-1902) et ses maîtres - musée des Beaux-Arts - France, Nantes, 2005-2006
- De la scène au tableau - musée Cantini - France, Marseille, 2009-2010
- Dalla scena al dipinto. La magia del teatro nella pittura dell'Ottocento. Da David a Delacroix da Füssli a Degas - Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto - Italie, Rovereto, 2010
- Drama and Desire: Artists and the Theatre - Art Gallery of Ontario - Canada, Toronto, 2010
- James Tissot - Chiostro del Bramante - Italie, Rome, 2015-2016
- Spectaculaire Second Empire - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2016-2017
- Du bist Faust. Goethes Drama in der Kunst - Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung - Allemagne, Munich, 2018
- James Tissot (1836-1902) - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - Etats-Unis, San Francisco, 2019-2020
- James Tissot (1836-1902) - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2020
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Zerner, L'Oeil, "James Tissot de l'Angleterre victorienne au Paris de Marcel Proust", Paris, [s.n.], 1968, p.22
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Wentworth, Michael Justin, James Tissot, Oxford, Clarendon press, 1984, pp.22-28-31-32-57-199
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Cyrille Sciamma, James Tissot, cat. exp. (Rome, Chiostro del Bramante, du 26 septembre 2015 au 21 février 2016), Milano, Skira, 2015, cat. 3 pp. 56, 57 (reprod. coul.)
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Buron, Melissa E. ; Matyjaszkiewicz, Krystyna ; Esposito, Donato ; Kisiel, Marine ; Perrin, Paul, James Tissot, cat. exp. (San Francisco, Legion of Honor, du 12/10/2019 au 09/02/2020 ; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, du 23/032020 au 19/07/2020), New York, DelMonico Books, Prestel, 2019, cat. 3, p. 86 (reprod. coul.) ; p. 284 (cartel détaillé)
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Compin, Isabelle ; Roquebert, Anne, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre et du Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, vol.4, p.233
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Compin, Isabelle [coordination] ; Lacambre, Geneviève [coordination] ; Roquebert, Anne, Musée d'Orsay. Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1990, vol.2, p.451
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