The Circle of the Rue Royale

There is a delightful paradox in including James Tissot in a discussion of fashion and the Impressionists. His tight, shimmering canvases are as hostile to the untidy brushwork of the Impressionist style as the painter himself was to the group’s strategies. In 1874 he resolutely kept himself at a distance from their first collective event and, in the end, respected only Edgar Degas,...