James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836–1902)

Edgar Degas

Oil on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Degas captures his friend and fellow painter James Tissot lounging in a studio crowded with the visual clues of their artistic world, from a Japanese-inspired screen overhead to an old master portrait and unfinished canvases on easels. Tissot sits with languid, self-possessed elegance, cane in hand, embodying the dandyish sophistication of the Parisian avant-garde he and Degas both moved within. The loose, confident brushwork and somber, tonal palette reveal Degas's early mastery of psychological portraiture before he turned fully to ballet dancers and modern Parisian life. This is a rare, intimate record of one artist's admiration for another, perfect for anyone drawn to the quiet drama of nineteenth-century studio culture.