In Full Sunlight (En plein soleil)

In Full Sunlight (En plein soleil) of 1881, on panel at the Metropolitan Museum, represents one of the most technically challenging subjects in nineteenth-century painting: a figure in full, strong summer sunlight, with all the bleaching, flattening, and intensifying effects that direct sunlight has on form and colour. The subject was one being addressed simultaneously by the Impressionists, and Tissot's approach — precise, detailed, materially specific — offers a contrast to the Impressionist dissolution of form in favour of light effects. The woman in strong sunlight with her parasol and brilliant dress is a social subject and a light problem simultaneously, and Tissot manages both with the technical authority of a painter at the peak of his abilities. The Metropolitan Museum's Tissot holdings are among the most important in the world.

Oil on panel, the hard support enables precise paint application appropriate to the challenge of rendering strong sunlight's effects. Tissot manages the bleaching of colour, the deep shadows cast by the parasol, and the reflections of light off fabric and skin simultaneously. The figure's dress in full sun is rendered with specific attention to how direct light changes colour relationships.