The Bible is one of the most published books in the world. Biblical stories have been illustrated hundreds of times by many artists. However, among this long list of names, there are masters whose drawings occupy a special place. One of them is Gustave Doré, who created more than two hundred illustrations for the Bible. The second master of equal stature became the painter, portraitist, and engraver James Tissot. It is his monumental and detail-oriented illustrations that adorn this edition of the New Testament. Tissot worked on these drawings, as well as the illustrations for the Old Testament and the series "The Life of Christ," in the last years of his life.
These works of his bore little resemblance to the paintings that made the artist famous in the last quarter of the 19th century. At that time, in his paintings, Tissot depicted the secular life of the upper echelons of English society: ladies in luxurious attire and elegant men beside them. Tissot was meticulously precise in details, carefully depicting all elements of costumes and interiors on his canvases. It is no wonder that this artist was rightly considered the painter of Victorian England. Tissot organically combined his photorealistic narrative style in painting with an impressionistic presentation of color and unexpected angles. A single glance at any of his paintings is enough to immediately understand - this is the work of a great master.
Tissot admired luxurious outfits and colorful fabrics even in his childhood. His mother was a dressmaker, and his father sold draperies. The future artist spent the first years of his life in France. He was born in 1836 in Nantes and was named Jacques Joseph at birth. When Tissot turned seventeen, he decided to become a painter. His father was against it, but the young man insisted on his path and in 1856 moved to Paris to enroll in the School of Fine Arts. It was there, in Paris, that Tissot met Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet; these artists had a noticeable influence on his painting. In 1859, Tissot exhibited several of his works at the Paris Salon, and they were highly praised by experts. Since his youth, Tissot had been an Anglophile. In 1863, he showcased his works in London. Their success at Ernest Gambart's art gallery prompted Tissot to cross the Channel. In England, the artist spent a major part of his life.
Tissot's mother was a devout Catholic. She instilled in her son an interest in biblical themes. Tissot approached the work of illustrating the Bible with the utmost seriousness. At the end of the 19th century, he specifically undertook a journey to the Middle East. Hence the "archaeological" accuracy of his drawings, which allow one to see the events of the New Testament as if through the eyes of contemporaries of Christ and his disciples.
