There is a delightful paradox in including James Tissot in a discussion of fashion and the Impressionists. His tight, shimmering canvases are as hostile to the untidy brushwork of the Impressionist style as the painter himself was to the group’s strategies. In 1874 he resolutely kept himself at a distance from their first collective event and, in the end, respected only Edgar Degas,...

~Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity is the first exhibition to focus on the defining role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Some eighty major figure paintings—shown in concert with period costumes, accessories, fashion plates, photographs, and popular prints—highlight the vital relationship between...