tissot 2

For a brief, but emotionally dense, portion of Tissot's life from 1876-1882 [40-46j.]... 

he met and eventually shared a home with the young [22j.] divorcée Kathleen Newton. 

A woman of Irish Catholic heritage... 

who grew up in the south Asian colonies. 

Newton met Tissot soon after divorcing her British husband and moving to London. 

Tissot was evidently moved by Newton, and after the two became further acquainted, he invited Kathleen and her children to come live with him at Grove End Road. 

This broken family's influence upon Tissot is immediately evident in the changes to the tone and character of his subsequent paintings. He began to focus less on scenes of parties, high class drama, and busy cosmopolitan life, and instead moved toward pictures of tranquillity, family life, and domesticity, often using Newton and her children for his subjects. 

Unfortunately, this contented portion of Tissot and Newton's life as a 'family'... 

soon came to an end, when Newton succumbed to a long struggle with tuberculosis in 1882. 

Newton's death left a visible mark on Tissot, who for many years after would dabble with mysticism and mediums, seeking to make contact with the deceased Newton. One of Tissot's paintings, 'The Apparition', whose original was thought to be lost or destroyed until a mere two years ago, portrays Tissot's vision from one of these sessions: Kathleen Newton next to the famous medium William Eglington.

Immediately following Newton's death... 

Tissot re-fled from London back to Paris, and took up work at a new studio. 

He worked on a few different projects, including The Prodigal Son in Modern Life (a subject he had already depicted in the context of the Middle Ages during his salon years) and the massive portraits of the La Femme à Paris series. Both of these projects were again received with mixed praise and criticism. 

[bron]