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The Lovers
James Tissot (French, 1836–1902)
1872
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 101 x 61.5 cm (39 3/4 x 24 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- France, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Partial gift from Ralph and Terry Kovel and Family, and partial purchase from the John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
James Tissot lived in London in 1871–82 where he established a reputation as painter of elegantly dressed women in modern, fashionable settings. This painting, made at the beginning of his London period, was designed to appeal to Victorian audiences who enjoyed art that hinted at narrative. Here, a young couple enters an upholstered interior, leaving a sunlit garden. The woman’s gesture suggests contemplation; might she be considering a proposal made by the man who follows closely behind her? Their exchange, ultimately, remains mysterious.
