Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
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>
Gallery HMS Calcutta Portsmouth
Presented by Samuel Courtauld 1936
adults
chair
chaperone
clothing and personal items
deck
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
England
England, South East
England, Southern
fan
flirtation
furnishings
Hampshire
harbour
love
man
military
morality
objects
people
places
Portsmouth
sailor
sea
seascapes and coasts
sex and relationships
ship, hulk
ship, warship, ‘HMS Calcutta’
social comment
society
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
woman
work and occupations
<p>Tissot often painted a man with two women in order to explore the subtle nuances of flirtation and attraction through body language and facial expression. Here a chaperone separates the young naval officer from the object of his attentions, the woman hiding her enjoyment of his flirtation behind her fan. Tissot focuses here on the boundaries of Victorian propriety and social convention, and their transgression. The languid pose of the nearest woman, and Tissot’s frank concentration on her fashionable hour-glass figure, inevitably led to the picture being criticised when it was first exhibited. The author Henry James dismissed it as ‘hard, vulgar and banal’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
29 August 2001 – 25 July 2005
2005-07-25
29 August 2001
2001-08-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-29
Art and Victorian Society
Collection based display
6 October 2005 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
6 October 2005 – 15 January 2006
2006-01-15
2005-10-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
18 February 2006 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
2006-02-18
Phillips Collection (Washington, USA)
2005-10-06
Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris 1870-1910
Exhibition
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
17 February 2015 – 7 June 2015
2015-06-07
17 February 2015 – 7 June 2015
2015-06-07
2015-02-17
Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village (Compton, UK)
http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk
2015-02-17
Fashion and Feminism: Aesthetic Dress in Victorian Portraiture
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
12 October 2019 – 13 September 2020
2020-09-13
12 October 2019 – 9 February 2020
2020-02-09
2019-10-12
Legion of Honor (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.legionofhonor.org
22 March 2020 – 13 September 2020
2020-09-13
2020-03-22
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2019-10-12
James Tissot, 1836-1902
Loan-out
The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth)
support: 686 × 918 mm
frame: 866 × 1095 × 108 mm
Presented by Samuel Courtauld 1936
<div class="para7">
<span class="text0">Tissot often painted a man with two women in order to      explore the subtle nuances of flirtation and attraction through body      language and facial expression. Here a chaperone separates the young naval      officer from the object  of his attentions, the woman hiding her enjoyment      of his flirtation behind her fan. Tissot focuses here on the boundaries of      <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/v/victorian" title="Glossary definition for 'Victorian'"><span>Victorian</span></a> propriety and social convention, and their transgression. The      languid pose of the nearest woman, and Tissot’s frank concentration      on her fashionable hour-glass figure, inevitably led to the picture being      criticised when it was first exhibited. The author Henry James dismissed it      as ‘hard, vulgar and banal’.  </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>James Tissot</b><span> 1836-1902 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/tissot-the-gallery-of-hms-calcutta-portsmouth-n04847" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04847</span></a> </span><b>The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth)</b><span>
</span><i>c.</i><span>1876 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'J.J. Tissot' b.l.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 27 x 36 1/8 (68.5 x 92)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Samuel Courtauld 1936</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
J. Robertson Reid; Henry Trengrouse, Teddington; sold by his Executors, Puttick and Simpson sale, London, 27 February 1929, lot 107; bt. Leicester Galleries, London, 16 gns.; Samuel Courtauld, London</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
Grosvenor Gallery, London, May-June 1877 (19) as 'The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth)', lent by J. Robertson Reid; </span><i>Fine Art Loan Exhibition</i><span>, City Art Gallery, Glasgow, May 1878 (243); </span><i>'In the Seventies': Paintings by James Tissot</i><span>, Leicester Galleries, London, June 1933 (7, repr.) as 'Officer and Ladies on Board HMS "Calcutta"'; </span><i>Loan Exhibition of English and French Paintings and Drawings</i><span>, Silver End, Essex, March-April 1935 (84), lent by Samuel Courtauld; </span><i>James Tissot (1836-1902)</i><span>, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, May-June 1955 (31, repr. pl.IV); </span><i>James Tissot, 1836-1902</i><span>, Arts Council touring exhibition, July-November 1955 (23); </span><i>19th Century French Pictures</i><span>, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth, April-June 1960 (49)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
James Laver, </span><i>Vulgar Society</i><span> (London 1936), p.37, repr. pl.16; Douglas Cooper, </span><i>The Courtauld Collection</i><span>
(London 1954), No.77, p.120; </span><i>Exhibition: The Memoirs of Oliver Brown</i><span> (London 1968), p.117, repr. pl.9b</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>The Graphic</i><span>, XVI, 18 August 1877, supplement between pp.150-1; </span><i>Apollo</i><span>, XXV, 1937, p.80 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The original title is 'The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth)', but this picture has also been known as 'Officer and Ladies on Board HMS Calcutta'. 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 to which he gave the sub-title 'Memory of a Ball on Board' (</span><i>J.J. Tissot: Eaux-fortes, Manière Noire, Pointes Sèches</i><span>, Paris 1886, No.19 as 'La Galerie du "Calcutta" (Souvenir d'un bal à bord)'). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>At this period the two hulks </span><i>Calcutta</i><span>
and </span><i>Excellent</i><span>
moored in Portsmouth dockyard were used as the navy's gunnery school for training officers. After two years of preliminary instruction at Dartmouth, the young acting sublieutenants were posted to Portsmouth and had to take this course as one of the qualifications for a lieutenant's commission. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The </span><i>Calcutta</i><span>
was a teak-built two-decker ship-of-the-line. In this picture the sublieutenant and the two lady visitors are standing in her stern gallery and are evidently looking across to the Excellent, which was moored close astern and joined to the </span><i>Calcutta</i><span>
by a footbridge. (See Admiral G.A. Ballard, 'Victorian Hulks under the White Ensign' in </span><i>The Mariner's Mirror</i><span>, XXXI, 1945, pp.24-9; the compiler is grateful to Captain A.J. Pack, RN (Retd.) for <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/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> his attention to this). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.721-2, reproduced p.721</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults chair chaperone clothing and personal items deck emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas England England, South East England, Southern fan flirtation furnishings Hampshire harbour love man military morality objects people places Portsmouth sailor sea seascapes and coasts sex and relationships ship, hulk ship, warship, ‘HMS Calcutta’ social comment society transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions woman work and occupations