James Jacques Tissot
, French, 1836-1902
Title
Marguerite in ChurchDatec.1861
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
50 x 75 cm
Signedlower right: J T
Credit LinePresented, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, 1950
Object numberNGI.4280
DescriptionThe story of Faust dates to the sixteenth century. It concerns a widely travelled doctor who worked magic cures before dying in mysterious circumstances. The legend that grew up around this elusive figure claimed that he had made a pact with the devil and traded his soul for youth, knowledge and supernatural powers. Tissot’s painting was inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic play based on the Faust legend, published in 1808. Goethe presented Faust as a scholar and introduced the character of Marguerite into the story. Here, we see Marguerite battling with her conscience after Faust has seduced her. She contemplates her fate in the corner of a candlelit church; on the wall behind her is a painting of The Last Judgement. The children kneeling in prayer before the shrine accentuate the young woman’s moral corruption and spiritual isolation. In 1871 Tissot moved from Paris to London due to the Franco-Prussian War. In England he established a reputation as a painter of genre scenes depicting fashionable society. This painting, with its medieval setting and literary subject matter, reflects the influence of the Belgian history painter Henri Leys upon Tissot’s early work.
March 2016
ProvenancePresented, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, 1950Exhibition HistorySalon, Paris
James Tissot 1836-1902, Barbican Art Gallery, London; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, 1985
James Tissot, Victorian Life/Modern Love, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 22 September - 28 November 1999; Musée de Québec, Canada, 15 December 1999 - 12 March 2000; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 24 March - 2 July 2000
James Tissot 1836-1902, Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 12 October 2019 - 9 February 2020
Label TextTissot’s painting depicts a scene from Goethe’s tragic play Faust (1808). The play tells of a scholar, Heinrich Faust, who makes a pact with the devil in exchange for infinite knowledge. Here we see Marguerite, the young woman whom Faust has seduced. She sits in church battling with her conscience. Behind her, an image of The Last Judgement hints at her moral predicament. The Belgian history painter Henri Leys was an important influence on Tissot’s early work and inspired his interest in both literary subjects and medieval settings.