Gazette Drouot - C apencheres

THE MAGAZINE UPCOMING AUCTIONS
Tissot paints Countess Pillet-Will
Aportrait by James Tissot, at last identified,
is a real event. Thanks to the family provenance
of this model, we know that it is
one of Julie Marie Clotilde Briatte, Countess
Pillet-Will. She was the author of
esoteric writings under the pseudonym Charles d'Orino.
A follower of the spiritual doctrine of Allan Kardec, she
claimed to have received communications dictated
from beyond the grave by various illustrious spirits.
In these "Contes de l’au-delà sous la dictée des esprits"
(1904), she staged Théophile Gautier, Balzac, Maupassant,
Lamartine and Pushkin. James Tissot began
frequenting high society in the 1860s. Members of the
extremely select Jockey Club would ask him to paint
them on the terrace overlooking the Place de la
Concorde. In this portrait, the young woman is posing
in a magnificent morning gown. The splendid blue of
22 GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL I N° 19
her pelisse emphasises the white of the dress and the
fur. Lost in her thoughts, she seems to have total confidence
in this artist who "ensured her immortality (…) as
part of the history of our times", wrote James Laver,
author of the painter’s first biography. Tissot delighted
in painting folds, drapes, the tiniest pompom and bow,
and hats decorated with ribbons or feathers. Perhaps
he owed this talent to his father, who was a draper in
Nantes, and his mother, who used to make hats for the
store's elegant customers. No exhibition on fashion is
complete without a painting by Tissot. In 1933, Edward
Knoblock wrote: "None of his other contemporaries left
such comprehensive evidence of his times; no others
managed such graceful expression, with such remarkable
attention to the slightest authentic detail… down
to the tiniest button and the most insignificant fold."
Anne Foster
Jacques-Joseph Tissot, known as
James Tissot (1836-1902), "Portrait
de Julie Marie Clotilde Briatte,
comtesse Pillet-Will" (1850-1910),
pastel on canvas, 90 x 163 cm.
Estimate: €60,000/80,000.
Saumur - 1st December - Xavier
de La Perraudière auction house.