James Tissot, a French painter, engraver, and…

James Tissot, a French painter, engraver, and enameler noted for his society portraits, makes many etchings, dry-points, and mezzotints, as well as paintings.

In the late 1870s, he had also become interested in the craft of cloisonné enameling.

In 1875-76, Tissot had met an Irish divorcee named Mrs. Kathleen Newton, who had become the painter's companion and frequent model.

Newton had given birth to a son, Cecil George Newton in 1876, who is believed to be Tissot's son.

She had moved into Tissot's household in St. John's Wood in 1876 and stayed there until her death in the late stages of consumption in November 1882.

Tissot will frequently refer to these years with Newton as the happiest of his life, a time when he is able to live out his dream of a family life.

Tissot returns to Paris after Kathleen Newton's death.