Louise Colet

Louise Colet of 1861, at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, depicts a young woman in what is likely a portrait or fancy picture from the very early stage of Tissot's career. Louise Colet was the name of a well-known French writer and romantic figure — associated most famously with her long correspondence with Gustave Flaubert — and whether this painting depicts that woman or another woman given this title is a question for scholarly debate. Tissot in 1861 was twenty-five years old and newly arrived at the Salon, working within the conventions of French academic painting while developing the distinctive style that would make his reputation. Northampton Museum, as a regional British institution, holds works collected across a broad range of British and European art, and this early Tissot represents his work before his major stylistic developments.

Oil on canvas, the early work shows Tissot's French academic training in a direct form: solid modelling, clear compositional structure, attention to the description of fabric and the sitter's expression. The technique would not yet show the full development of the material precision and social acuity of his mature work.