Samson Puts Down the Pillars c. 1896 - 1902

James Tissot made this watercolor painting called "Samson Puts Down the Pillars." Watercolor is a tricky medium – hard to control, but capable of luminous effects. Here, Tissot uses it to capture a dramatic moment. Look at the two large pillars, which frame the composition. They’re rendered with careful detail, suggesting they may have been built from stone, with painted decorations. These would have taken many different forms of labor to create, from quarrying to transport, carving to decoration. Consider Samson himself, straining against the pillars, as well as the people in the background. They are the subject of his labor, and literally caught in the collapse that he is about to cause. The use of watercolor, as opposed to oil paint, sets this biblical scene slightly apart from the established traditions of high art. The choice of materials, techniques, and representation all contribute to the narrative. By attending to the making, we can get a much richer sense of the world that Tissot wanted to convey.