In Full Sunlight

James Tissot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print reverses the composition of Tissot’s painting of the same title (2006.278). In translating the painted motif, the artist made significant changes, most notably to the background. He eliminated the plunging perpendicular garden path in favor of a closed floral border, though the small black cat appears in both versions. Another related print "On the Grass" (56.630.17) shows the three central figures arranged in a different configuration and against an alternate backdrop. Comparison of these three works reveals the highly constructed nature of Tissot’s garden pictures.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art