Les Adieux (The Farewell)

Through a firmly closed iron gate, a man and a woman hold hands and gaze intently at each other. Fallen leaves scatter at their feet, depicting a melancholic yet beautiful scene of parting lovers dressed in classical 18th-century attire.

Yet, beneath the surface of this romantic painting, lie the harrowing memories and desperate flight of the painter James Tissot.

In 1871, when this painting was created, he had just barely escaped from his homeland, France, to London. Paris at the time was in the midst of the Franco-Prussian War and the subsequent bloody civil conflict known as the 'Paris Commune'.

Tissot, who had once achieved great success depicting the elegant upper class and lived in a luxurious mansion, had also thrown himself into the harsh front lines as a National Guardsman and had even been wounded.