Lines and Colors art blog

Eye Candy for Today: Tissot’s Tea

Tea, James Tissot
Tea, James Tissot

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use the download or zoom icons under the image for the high-resolution version.

Tissot here copied and expanded on a portion of another of his own paintings, Bad News. The change in context from the narrative of the latter painting gives this one a very different feeling, despite the repeated pose and subject.

I love the economical notation of the ships’ masts out the window behind the young woman, and the reflections in the tea samovar and wood of the table.