The Followers of Korah Consumed by Fire
Gouache on paper. Signed lower right 'JJ Tissot'.
308 x 247 mm
(12 x 9 3⁄4 inches)
Nantes 1836 ~ 1902 Château de Buillon, near Besancon
James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot's early training was academic, conservative and traditional. He studied briefly under Flandrin and for several years under Lamothe, both pupils of Ingres. Tissot became a brilliant technician and a very good draughtsman. One of his friends in Paris was James McNeill Whistler and through him Tissot was introduced to the London scene. Two other important friendships were those with Manet and Degas. Tissot was first known as the painter of the 'Middle Ages', then of 'Modern Life', 'Vulgar Society' and 'Love'.1 However, his final years spent in Paris (1885-1902) were those of a painter of the Bible. He reconverted to the Roman Catholic faith in 1885 and during a mass at Sainte Sulpice, Paris, he had a vision that was to change his life. Alongside his renewed faith went his absorption in spiritualism which became very fashionable in the late nineteenth century. The latter gave a pseudoscientific answer to the problems of the after life by conjuring up the spirits, and the physical presence of the dead.2 These two new interests provided the background for the remaining years of Tissot's career: he decided to illustrate the whole of the Bible beginning with the New Testament. To make his illustrations as realistic as possible, Tissot travelled to the Middle East in 1885, 1889 and 1896, visiting Palestine, Egypt, Syria and The Lebanon. The illustrations, in gouache, for the New Testament cycle, are now in the Brooklyn Museum, New York. The illustrations for the Old Testament were unfinished at the time of his death. However, he managed to complete ninety-five of them.3 After his demise these gouache drawings toured the United States and were eventually purchased by the New York Public Library. At a later date they were passed on to the Jewish Museum in New York. Our drawing was not one of this group as it was not among those publishesd in Tissot's Old Testament.4
Our drawing depicts the story of the rebellion by Korah and his two hundred and fifty followers against Moses and Aaron. These followers were all of the tribe of Levi and therefore could serve Aaron in his priestly duties. They were in fact claiming equality with Moses and Aaron. Therefore, Moses decided that they should all burn incense before God and this would reveal God's choice in the matter. In the event, 'there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense', (Numbers 16. 35). Another account of the subject, in Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 4.3.4, makes it clear that Aaron, placed in the foreground of our drawing, was the only one to remain unscathed.
1. Christopher Wood, Tissot, The Life and Work of Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1836-1902, London, 1986, pp.19, 31, 44, & 85.
2. C. Wood, op.cit., p.145.
3. After his death the illustrations were completed either from his sketches or in his style by six different studio artists. Cf. C. Wood, op.cit., p.154
4. Cf. James Jacques Joseph Tissot, The Old Testament: Three Hundred and Ninety-Six Compositions Illustrating the Old Testament, Paris, London, New York, 1904.
