Here is information on a wonderful art exhibit in Norfolk VA featuring the artist James Tissot:

From March 23 through June 5, 2011, the Chrysler Museum of Art unveils an exhibition devoted to one of the most artful, dramatic, and influential visualizations of the early Christian story ever created.

James Tissot (French, 1836–1902)

Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray, 1886–1894

James Tissot: The Life of Christ features more than 120 brilliantly conceived watercolors produced in preparation for his mammoth, three-volume publication of the New Testament. Also called the Tissot Bible, the richly illustrated publication appeared in Paris in 1896 and shortly after in England and America. It quickly became an international sensation.

James Tissot (French, 1836–1902)
The Sermon of the Beatitudes, 1886–1896
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
9 5/8 x 6 7/16 in. (24.4 x 16.4 cm)

This special exhibition is organized by the Brooklyn Museum, which possesses all but a handful of the 365 watercolors that Tissot produced to illustrate his book. The selection of paintings in the exhibition embraces the whole of the New Testament narrative, moving from Jesus' birth and ministry to the culminating events of his Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension. But whatever the moment depicted, Tissot brings to his work an artistic and technical brilliance, an almost cinematic richness of detail, a sense of drama and psychological insight, and a degree of archeological exactness seldom found in earlier depictions of the theme. His own religious transformation in 1885 inspired him to make his illustrations of the Bible as authentic as possible. He traveled to the Holy Land three times in the late 1880s and early 1890s. While in the Middle East, he visited Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon and obsessively sketched the landscape and people there to get a real sense of how it and they might have looked in early Christian times.

James Tissot (French, 1836–1902)
The Lord's Prayer, 1886–1896
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
8 1/2 x 6 7/16 in. (21.6 x 16.4 cm)
All paintings purchased by public subscription, Brooklyn Museum

When the artist first exhibited his watercolors in Paris in 1894, the effect on visitors was instantaneous and dramatic. Newspapers at the time reported that his exhibition sparked religious revivals, and that some visitors toured the show weeping and on their knees, as if on a pilgrimage. Their artistic impact would reach well into the 20th century and all the way to Hollywood, where Technicolor spectaculars like Ben Hur and even Raiders of the Lost Ark liberally quoted from Tissot’s Bible illustrations. James Tissot: The Life of Christ brilliantly captures the look and feel of an ancient era that set the stage for so much of the Western cultural and spiritual experience. Don’t miss this exhibition of compelling power, riveting narrative, and miraculous detail at the Chrysler Museum, just in time for Easter.

James Tissot: The Life of Christ is organized by The Brooklyn Museum and is made possible, in part, by a generous award by the National Endowment for the Arts. Local presentation is made possible through the generous support of anonymous friends of the Museum, Regent University, and The Christian Broadcasting Network.

Admission: $5 for adults and teens, free for children 12 and younger (applies to all special exhibitions on view on the day of your visit). Museum Members ALWAYS enjoy unlimited free admission to all special exhibitions.

A wide variety of programs and events will complement the exhibition. For information, see www.chrysler.org.