Jacques Joseph or James Tissot, lived a splendid life between Paris and London during the Belle Epoque. He cannot be assigned to either the English or the French tradition. The first name James - which he adopted in 1859 - and his years in London (1871-1882) made him an artist between both worlds. The difficulty of categorizing Tissot is also reflected in his work. A continuity between his glamorous social portraits and the biblical illustrations - between the dandy and the businessman, the "ingenious merchant", as the painter John Singer Sargent called him - is difficult to establish.
