Summer Evening 1881

Editor: It looks as though she's had a long day, wouldn’t you agree? A woman in repose; there's something languid about the figure and scene. Curator: Indeed. What you're perceiving, I think, is partly due to Tissot's sensitive deployment of etching. Here we have "Summer Evening," completed in 1881. What's striking is how the aquatint technique captures varying light tonalities; observe how he layers in a density of shadows. Editor: One immediately picks up on this labor. Look how the weave of the wicker chair has been intricately rendered with what appears like sheer, grueling mark-making. It emphasizes her place, doesn't it? And note how she's reclining amidst those plush textiles – the image really speaks to ideas about leisure and social class, doesn't it? Curator: Yes, Tissot’s precise linear articulation and careful rendering of form create a spatial and thematic hierarchy within the picture plane itself. Her languidness contrasts effectively with the implied rigid geometric structure surrounding her form. Editor: And it’s precisely in that interplay – between what is literally ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ – that we discover commentary regarding a consumerist desire for material comfort at the height of industrial capitalism. Note the composition with which she displays her fashionable stockinged feet and opulent dress! The very materials speak volumes! Curator: Perhaps, but I am also drawn to the work’s masterful exploitation of line, creating, not simply representing, the woman and her position. Look at the botanical patterns present throughout her dress, repeated but shifted as tonal depth and the position of the viewer shift. These repeated shapes, in their geometric variance, reflect an order implied rather than defined. Editor: True, there is clearly an implied artificiality to the composition, almost to the point of excess, and a distinct focus on commodity fetishism. Curator: Regardless of what underpins our interpretations, the careful formal tensions make Tissot’s aesthetic project worth prolonged consideration. Editor: Agreed. The textures, her clothes, it makes one think about the making of such materials, what labor produces such leisured space!