Jacob Mourns His Son Joseph 1902

James Tissot painted "Jacob Mourns His Son Joseph" in watercolor, and the first thing I notice are the many figures in the scene, all arranged to show grief. I immediately think about how many times in art history we see men painted in this way, usually it’s the women, right? You can sense Tissot feeling his way through the composition, trying to find the right balance, the right pose that conveys the most heartbreak. Look at how Jacob is at the center of the painting, hunched over, his face buried in his hands. I imagine Tissot trying different ways to express this devastation. He might have been thinking about other artists and their handling of grief, and that's the thing about painting; it's always a conversation, a kind of call and response across time. He paints the scene in muted tones, which adds to the solemn mood. This artwork is an invitation to consider how we depict and process loss and how artists have grappled with these themes over centuries. It shows us that painting is also a form of embodied expression, where ambiguity meets feelings.