Link: Dustbowl Blues.
Another crowd-pleaser, "The Thames" (circa 1876), combines two favorite Tissot themes; a setting on water and a single man with a pair of attractive young women. Depicting a sailor with two unescorted lady friends on a pleasure trip through the busy and polluted Pool of London dockyards, with a picnic hamper and bottles of champagne at their feet, this was considered an overly "fast" image by British critics. Some thought showing unchaperoned women in such a situation was "More French… than English…," adding to the chorus of condemnation. To today’s viewers it is simply a grand picture in a wonderfully evocative place.
Tissot’s pictures reflected his desire to win favor with wealthy patrons and to establish an elevated position for himself in British society. By depicting glamorous balls, lush garden parties and people enjoying tiny seaside resorts – and the social codes that surrounded them – he sought to suggest that he was at home with the English elite. His unusual emphasis on etiquette, elegant accessories and interior decor, showed he could get such things right and in precise detail.
http://www.antiquesandthearts.com/archive/tissot.htm
