Tissot was born in Nantes, France. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1857 where he made friends with Degas, Whistler, and writer Dauder. He exhibited a Late Romantic style historical painting for the first time at the Salon in 1859. Being influenced by Manet, when he went to London and exhibited at the Royal Academy in the years of 1863/64, he began to use Impressionist techniques of colour and composition. He made great success with his anecdotal and detailed pictures, which was also influenced by the Japanese style of painting. He emigrated to England in 1871, and returned to Paris in 1882. He had finished a series of 15 pictures of typical Parisian women during the years of 1883 – 1885. In 1888 he underwent a religious conversion when he went into a church to ‘catch the atmosphere for a picture’ and there after he devoted himself to biblical subjects. He visited the Holy Land in 1886-87 and in 1889 and his illustrations to the events of the Bible became very popular, both in book form and when the original drawings were exhibited. A gold medal was awarded to him at the World Fair in Paris in 1889. He died at Chateau-de-Buillon in 1902.