Bible. New Testament

The Bible is one of the most published books in the world. Biblical stories were illustrated hundreds of times by many artists. However, in this long series of names there are masters whose drawings occupy a special place. One of them is Gustav Dore, who performed more than two hundred illustrations to the Bible. The second master of the equally high level was the painter, portrait painter and engraver James Tissso. It is his monumental and accurate in detail that the illustrations decorate the publication of the New Testament, which you hold in your hands. Above these drawings, as well as illustrations for the Old Testament and the series “Life of Christ”, Tissso worked in the last years of his life.

These works were little like paintings that glorified the artist in the last quarter of the 19th century. At that time, in his paintings, Tisso depicted the secular life of the highest layers of English society: I will give in chic outfits and elegant men next to them. Tissso was meticulously accurate in detail, he carefully wrote out all the elements of costumes and interiors on his canvases. No wonder this artist was rightfully considered the painter of Victorian England. Tisso organically combined his photorealistic narrative style in painting with impressionistic color supply and unexpected angles. One look at any of his picture is enough to immediately understand - this is the work of a great master.

luxurious outfits and colorful fabrics Tissso admired in childhood. His mother was a fashionist, and his father traded drapery. The future artist spent the first years of his life in France. He was born in 1836 in Nantes, and at birth received the name Jacques Joseph. When Tisso turned seventeen, he decided to become a painter. The father was against it, but the young man insisted on his own and in 1856 left for Paris to enter the school of elegant arts. It was there, in Paris, Tissso met Edgar Degas and Eduard Manet; These artists noticeably influenced his painting. In 1859, Tissso put up several of his works in the Paris salon, and they were very highly appreciated by experts. From his youth, Tissso was Angloman. In 1863, he showed his work in London. Their success in the artillery of Ernest Gambar pushed Tissso to cross through the La-Channel. In England, the artist spent most of his life.

Mother Tissso was a zealous Catholic. It was she who instilled in her son an interest in biblical plots. Tisso reacted to the work on illustrating the Bible with all seriousness. At the end of the 19th century, he specially took a trip to the Middle East. Hence the “archaeological” accuracy of his drawings, which allow you to see the events of the New Testament, like 6, through the eyes of contemporaries of Christ and His disciples.