Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
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>
Ball on Shipboard
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1937
adults
clothing and personal items
Cowes - non-specific
deck
dress
England
England, South East
England, Southern
flag - non-specific
group
groups
Isle of Wight
leisure and pastimes
man
objects
party
people
places
recreational activities
religious and ceremonial
society
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
woman
<p>In this work, Tissot paints a modern-life scene in full sunlight. It depicts an August sailing regatta on the Isle of Wight. The scene recalls celebrity parties held on Royal Yachts. The pairing of identical dresses was a fashion established by the royal family. The woman in a straw sailor hat, standing by the railing, has been mistaken for Queen Alexandra. However, others wondered if the revellers were more ordinary. Mass-produced clothing and social mobility were disrupting class boundaries. Tissot’s picture enjoys these playful confusions of the modern crowd.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2021</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
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
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
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
5 April 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
5 April 2023 – 10 September 2023
2023-09-10
2023-04-05
Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, UK)
2023-04-05
Berthe Morisot: Impressionism and the Eighteenth Century
Loan-out
The Ball on Shipboard
support: 841 × 1295 mm
frame: 1012 × 1476 × 115 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1937
<div class="text">
<p>In this work, Tissot paints a modern-life scene in full sunlight. It depicts an August sailing regatta on the Isle of Wight. The scene recalls celebrity parties held on Royal Yachts. The pairing of identical dresses was a fashion established by the royal family. The woman in a straw sailor hat, standing by the railing, has been mistaken for Queen Alexandra. However, others wondered if the revellers were more ordinary. Mass-produced clothing and social mobility were disrupting class boundaries. Tissot’s picture enjoys these playful confusions of the modern crowd.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2021-05-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<strong>James Tissot</strong> 1836-1902
<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-the-ball-on-shipboard-n04892" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04892</span></a> <strong>The Ball on Shipboard</strong> <em>c.</em>1874
</p><p>
Inscribed 'J.J. Tissot' b.r.<br/>
Oil on canvas, 33 1/8 x 51 (84 x 130)<br/>
Chantrey Purchase 1937<br/>
<em>Prov:</em> With Thos. Agnew, London (purchased from the artist 1874); H. Philipson, 1874; Mrs Roland Philipson; through Leicester Galleries, London; Sir Alfred Munnings, London, 1937; Chantrey Trustees 1937<br/>
<em>Exh:</em> RA, London, May-August 1874 (690) as 'The Ball on Shipboard'; <em>Second James Tissot Exhibition</em>, Leicester Galleries, London, January 1937 (15), lent by Mrs Roland Philipson; RA, London, May-August 1937 (40); <em>The Chantrey Collection</em>, RA, London, January-March 1949 (222); <em>The British Antique Dealers' Association Golden Jubilee Exhibition</em>, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, May 1968 (5, repr.)<br/>
<em>Lit:</em> Sacheverell Sitwell, <em>Narrative Pictures</em> (London 1937), pp.92-3, 118, repr. pl.129<br/>
<em>Repr:</em> John Rothenstein, <em>Modern Foreign Pictures in the Tate Gallery</em> (London 1947), pl.24; <em>The Tate Gallery</em> (London 1969), p.89 in colour
</p><p>
A scene at Cowes during Regatta Week. It has also been known as 'The Ball on Shipboard, Cowes'.
</p><p>
Sir Sacheverell Sitwell has suggested that it represents a dance given on board the Royal yacht during Cowes week in 1873, and that the young woman standing by the companion-way, wearing a sailor straw hat tilted up upon her forehead, may represent Queen Alexandra, then Princess of Wales, and that the old gentleman next to her may be either the Czar Alexander II or Lord Londonderry. However, the picture is discussed at length in various reviews of the Royal Academy exhibition of 1874 and, contrary to what one would expect, there is no reference to any specific individuals or occasion. For instance, in <em>The Times</em>, July 1874, p.5: '... he has set himself the difficult task of representing the scene on board a man of war at Spithead, converted into a ball-room by an awning lined and fringed with flags ... the grace of the girls, the taste of their toilettes, and the capital characterisation of the gentlemen, young and old, yachtsmen and man-of-war officers, cannot be praised too highly.'
</p><p>
An oil sketch 94.5 x 66cm for the central section of 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>, with considerable variations, was sold at Sotheby's Belgravia on 25 October 1977, lot 174, repr. in colour.
</p><p>
<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.719-20, reproduced p.719


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Catalogue entry
2004-09-14T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults clothing and personal items Cowes - non-specific deck dress England England, South East England, Southern flag - non-specific group groups Isle of Wight leisure and pastimes man objects party people places recreational activities religious and ceremonial society transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions woman