# James Tissot artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/james-tissot/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T08:36:46.275Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1836-10-15
- Death date: 1902-08-08
- Nationality: French
- Movements: Realism, Impressionism, Academic art, Japonisme
- Common media: Oil painting, Watercolour and drawing, Etching and printmaking, Illustration

## Portrait

![James Tissot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/James_Tissot_Self_Portrait_%281865%29.jpg/1280px-James_Tissot_Self_Portrait_%281865%29.jpg)
James Tissot · Public domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Tissot_Self_Portrait_(1865).jpg

## About James Tissot

James Tissot was a French painter, illustrator, printmaker, draughtsman, and etcher who worked between France and England. His best-known paintings observe contemporary social life, particularly fashionable women, clothing, and the rituals of high society in the Belle Époque and Victorian era. Tissot combined realist observation with academic training and elements associated with early Impressionism, while also exploring medieval, Japoniste, and religious subjects. His move to London in 1871 brought a highly visible period of success, followed later by a sustained focus on biblical imagery and illustrations based on his travels in the Holy Land. Collectors encounter Tissot in paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints, and illustrated works. His reputation rests on both the elegance of his social scenes and the breadth of his later religious and graphic production.

## Common works and media

Commonly encountered Tissot works include oil paintings of fashionable contemporary life, scenes featuring women's dress and social gatherings, drawings and watercolours, etchings, prints, and illustrated biblical compositions. Auction records may also classify related objects under works on paper, editions, decorative art, sculpture, or mixed media. For any individual work, the medium, support, dimensions, edition or impression information, signature, subject, date, provenance, and condition should be recorded before comparing it with other Tissot lots.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraisal of a James Tissot work depends on the specific object rather than the artist name alone. Medium, dimensions, date, period, subject, condition, restoration, provenance, exhibition history, catalogue references, signature, and attribution all matter. Edition details are particularly relevant for prints and illustrated works. Comparable public auction results can provide useful context when the comparison matches the work's medium, subject, date, scale, and condition, but they do not establish a guaranteed value. Appraisily's tracked records indicate activity across paintings, works on paper, prints, editions, and other categories; coverage may exclude private sales or records whose attribution later changes.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q381248
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500010633
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/51697889/
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-tissot-2048
- Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Tissot
- British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG48590
- Art UK: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/tissot-james-18361902
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/james-tissot/
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Tissot_Self_Portrait_(1865).jpg