Detail of Tea by Tissot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2010

Artist: James Tissot (French, 1836–1902)

Title: Tea

Date: 1872

Medium: Oil on wood

Dimensions: 26 x 18 7/8 in. (66 x 47.9 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1998

Accession Number: 1998.170


Gallery Label:

When Tissot moved to London in 1871, he immersed himself in the local scene, with work for "Vanity Fair" and genre paintings with the river Thames as backdrop. "Tea" is a repetition of the left-hand portion of one of his most famous London scenes, "Bad News" (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), which shows a captain and his girlfriend absorbing the news of his imminent departure while a companion prepares tea.

"Bad News" shows the Pool of London through the tavern windows, while "Tea" displays the dense London cityscape beyond that stretch of the river. Tissot's friend Edgar Degas owned a pencil study for this picture.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/europe...