For modern tastes much of the appeal of Tissot's work lies in the extra artistic qualities. Brilliant in his manipulation of the artistic currents of his time, but without the genius to give them the essential meaning, he nonetheless marked the characteristic vision of his time with the inevitable stamp of his own personality. Stylistically Tissot was an artist susceptible to the passing influences of his time. Technically Tissot was conservative and always kept to the finish expected by the Salon and the Academy, so from this point there is little to recommend his work beyond sincere competence; but in the iconography and the troubled psychology of his pictures he comes into his own.
Text by Anna Palmer