Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-tissot-2048" aria-label="More by James Tissot" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">James Tissot</a>
Summer Portrait
Purchased 1927
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
clothing and personal items
domestic
features
hallway
individuals: female
interiors
Lloyd
named individuals
objects
parasol
people
portraits
ribbon
standing
window
woman
<p>Tissot played on ambiguity in this painting. He invites the viewer to interpret it, like a problem picture. This genre of painting, with open-ended narratives, widely appealed to Victorians at the time. His model, Miss Lloyd, stands at the entrance of a billiards’ room, a space traditionally associated with men. She is either leaving or inviting someone in and her large engagement ring adds mystery as to who she is looking at. Tissot also made a print on the same subject called Portrait of Miss L… or ‘Il faut qu’une porte soit ouverte ou fermée (A Door Must Be Open or Closed). He moved to London from Paris in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian war and stayed until 1882.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 March 2006 – 23 July 2006
2006-07-23
12 March 2006 – 23 July 2006
2006-07-23
2006-03-12
Palazzo della Marra (Barletta, Italy)
2006-03-12
De Nittis e Tissot
Loan-out
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
2012-01-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-01-31
Migrations
Exhibition
20 September 2012 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
20 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-20
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
19 February 2013 – 27 May 2013
2013-05-27
2013-02-19
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
29 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-29
The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, USA)
http://www.artic.edu/aic
2012-09-20
Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity
Loan-out
26 September 2015 – 21 February 2016
2016-02-21
26 September 2015 – 21 February 2016
2016-02-21
2015-09-26
Chiostro del Bramante (Rome, Italy)
http://www.chiostrodelbramante.it/
2015-09-26
James Tissot
Loan-out
2 November 2017 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2 November 2017 – 7 May 2018
2018-05-07
2017-11-02
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
21 June 2018 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2018-06-21
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France)
2017-11-02
Impressionists in London: French Artists in Exile, 1870-1904
Exhibition
2 November 2017 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
20 June 2018 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2018-06-20
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France)
2017-11-02
Impressionists in London: French Artists in Exile, 1870 - 1904
Loan-out
Summer (‘Portrait’)
support: 914 × 508 mm
frame: 1330 × 935 × 140 mm
Purchased 1927
<div><p><span>James Tissot is deliberately ambiguous here, inviting us to interpret it. His model, Miss Lloyd, stands at the entrance of a billiards’ room, a space traditionally associated with men. She is either leaving or inviting someone in. Her large engagement ring adds mystery as to who she is looking at. Tissot also made a print on the same subject called </span><i>‘Il faut qu’une porte soit ouverte ou fermée</i><span> (A Door Must Be Open or Closed) or </span><i>Portrait of Miss L.</i></p></div>
Online caption
2024-04-22T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><b>James Tissot</b> 1836-1902</p>
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/tissot-summer-portrait-n04271" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04271</span></a> <b>A Portrait</b> 1876</p>
<p>Inscribed 'J.J. Tissot | 1876' b.r. 
<br/>Oil on canvas, 36 x 20 (91.5 x 51) 
<br/>Purchased from Mrs Isa van Wisselingh (Clarke Fund) 1927 
<br/><i>Prov</i>: John Polson, Thornley and Tranent; sold by his executors at Christie's, London, 21 July 1911, lot 43 as 'An Afternoon Call'; bt. van Wisselingh, London, £44.2.0 
<br/><i>Exh</i>: Grosvenor Gallery, London, May-June 1877 (18) as 'A Portrait', lent by the artist; <i>James Tissot (1836-1902)</i>, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, May-June 1955 (29); <i>James Tissot, 1836-1902</i>, Arts Council touring exhibition, July-November 1955 (21); <i>England, her Friends and Visitors</i>, National Book League, London, July 1956 (243); <i>Victorian Paintings from the Tate Gallery</i>, Public Library, Tunbridge Wells, July-August 1959 (47) 
<br/><i>Repr</i>: James Laver, <i>Vulgar Society</i> (London 1936), pl.13</p>
<p>This picture was formerly catalogued as 'The Visit' and was sold at Christie's in 1911 as 'An Afternoon Call', but seems to be the work exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877 as 'A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>Portrait</span></a>'. The Pall Mall Gazette, 15 May 1877, p.12, cites as representative of Tissot's strongly realistic pictures in this exhibition 'the figure of a young lady in front of a window (18)', while Tom Taylor in The Graphic, 12 May 1877, p.454, refers to what must by elimination be the same picture as 'a full-length of a lady in white coming in at a door'. (Actually she is not completely full-length but is cut off at the feet).</p>
<p>Tissot made a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drypoint" title="Glossary definition for 'Drypoint'"><span>drypoint</span></a> after it in 1876 which not only reverses the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> but shows the figure with a different face and hat. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> is reproduced and listed in J.J. Tissot: Eaux-fortes, Manière Noire, Pointes Sèches (Paris 1886), No.17, as 'Portrait of Miss L...' or 'Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée'. The latter title may have been suggested by Alfred de Musset's short play of the same name, written in 1845, though there is no direct connection between the play and the incident depicted in the picture and the print. The model for the print, who was not necessarily the same, was identified in the catalogue of the Tissot sale at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, on 9-10 July 1903, lot 35 as Miss Lloyd.</p>
<p><b>Published in</b>: Ronald Alley, <i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.720, reproduced p.720</p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults architecture clothing and personal items domestic features hallway individuals: female interiors Lloyd named individuals objects parasol people portraits ribbon standing window woman