James (Jacques) Joseph Tissot (1836-1906)

Travel and departure are constant themes in Tissot’s work. He liked to cross the Channel by paddle-steamer from Boulogne to London but also took the train from ferry ports Folkestone to Charing Cross, or Dover to Victoria. This painting shows one of two cab roads in Victoria station between tracks for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. On the left is the chimney of a locomotive in steam. Hansom cabs are dropping off departing travellers and collecting arrivals. The young woman in a caped greatcoat may be about to leave the station, having just arrived by rail, or is descending from a cab to catch a train. She is based on studies and memories of Mrs Kathleen Newton, the great love of Tissot’s life, who features in many of his modern-life paintings from about 1877. Her dynamic, angled pose forms one of several diagonals zigzagging across the painting to convey vibrant activity. In earlier travel pictures her pose is more static. Tissot was living in France but made several Channel crossings in 1894-95 relating to the publication and exhibition of his illustrated ‘Life of Christ’.

We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.