Ramsgate

James Tissot
Ramsgate
Drypoint
1876

An original James Tissot Drypoint print.

1876

Original drypoint printed in black ink on wove paper.

Signed and dated in the plate lower right J.J. Tissot / 1876.

A richly printed impression of the definitive state of this extremely rare drypoint, showing touches of burr throughout, from the edition of only 50 (25 issued in the portfolio Ten Etchings, 25 issued individually). One of the plates comprising the portfolio Ten Etchings.

Catalog: Wentworth 22; Tissot 16; Béraldi 15.

Size Image: 9 ¾ x 13 11/16 inches

Sheet Size: 14 11/16 x 18 11/16 inches

James McNeill Whistler’s far reaching influence on Tissot is nowhere more obvious than in the nautical pictures Tissot painted on the Thames after his arrival in London. Whistler’s Thames etchings, published as The Thames Set in 1871, offer obvious models for Tissot’s works. Additionally, Whistler’s c. 1860-64 oil “Wapping,” the background of which he likened to an etching, offers another model that is remarkably close in feeling.

The impulse for both artist’s can perhaps be traced to the study of Japanese art. The “processional” composition of “Ramsgate,” in which figures are strung from one side of the composition to the other, across the surface, set against a distant view, was often brilliantly used by the artists of the Ukiyo-e school. It may well be the influence of Whistler that led Tissot to a deeper understanding of the art of Japan. Whether through Whistler or through direct study and assimilation, the Japanese print was probably the single most important influence on Tissot’s work of the middle 1870s.