Portrait de jeune femme 1883

James Tissot likely produced this pastel portrait of a young woman in France, during the late 19th century. Tissot gained popularity painting fashionable women, often from the upper classes, and this portrait is no exception. The woman's elaborate hat and ruffled dress are visual indicators of her social standing, reflecting the values and norms of the bourgeois society of the time. One wonders if, in portraying her thus, Tissot was making a comment on the rigid social hierarchy of his time. To understand the work more fully we can turn to fashion magazines of the period, like *La Mode Illustrée*, which offer valuable insight into the trends and social expectations of women during the late 1800s.