Partie Carrée

Partie Carrée of 1870, now at the National Gallery of Canada, depicts a group of four — two couples — in an outdoor social setting, the title referring to the French term for a social gathering of two men and two women. The painting was created just before Tissot's departure from Paris for London following the Commune, and it represents the peak of his engagement with fashionable Parisian outdoor life. The 'partie carrée' had associations in French culture with both innocent social pleasure and more knowing arrangements, and Tissot uses the social ambiguity built into the title to give the image a slightly charged atmosphere beneath its elegant surface. The National Gallery of Canada holds an outstanding collection of European art, and this early Tissot represents his work at a pivotal moment before his London transformation.

Oil on canvas, the work shows Tissot's French training fully operative: a confident composition, strong handling of outdoor light on fashionable dress, and the ability to suggest complex social dynamics through pose and expression. The garden or park setting is rendered with attention to the quality of filtered sunlight.