Yaneff.com

This etching depicts Kathleen Newton, a British divorcee who frequently modeled for the French artist James Tissot during the 1870s, while he lived in London. Based on a painting of the previous year, the print shows Newton reclining on a tasseled hammock in the artist’s own garden, engrossed in a novel. Tissot reinterpreted many of his paintings as etchings, inspired by a revived interest in the medium.
The Hammock, Oil Painting by Tissot
Sold at Christies for $1.8 million Nov. 2001

"Her family background is Irish, Catholic, medical. Aged 17 she is outraged at being forced into an arranged marriage but travels to India to marry a doctor she’s never met; she ends up back in London with an unconsummated marriage, a pending divorce and pregnant by a captain in the Bengal Cavalry. Despite being shunned by society, she never gives up hope of finding happiness which she does in Paris when she meets the sensually, mysterious French artist James Tisssot..." (A type of Beauty, The Story of Kathleen Newton)
Kathleen Newton (1854-1882)

"Tissot’s house was set in a large and private garden separating him from the horse traffic, omnibuses and pedestrians on their way to the park or the still-new Underground Railway station nearby.  Kathleen lived just around the corner, and legend has it that she met Tissot while mailing a letter at a postbox... Kathleen modeled for dozens of Tissot’s paintings; soon, he was painting her almost exclusively. The pictures form a charming chronicle of their years together. They also portray her rapid evolution from a young beauty travelling with her artist-lover, to a busy, beloved mother, then to a woman struggling with tuberculosis of which she died at only 28. Tissot’s relationship with Kathleen Newton was evidently the only successful romance of his life." (thehammocknovel.wordpress.com/) 

"Son of a fabric merchant, Tissot left for Paris in 1856 in order to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under Louis Lamothe  and Hippolyte Flandrin. Tissot, in his early career, was influenced by Belgian history painter Henry Leys, which resulted in such paintings as those illustrating Goethe's Faust. In Paris he became close friends with James A. M. Whistler, Degas , and later Morisot and Manet. Tissot made his debut at the Salon of 1859, and in 1864 he showed his first works depicting scenes of modern life.

He became quite successful, and by 1865 his financial troubles had disappeared. His fame had already spread to the other side of the Channel, and in 1864 he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in London. Intrigued by Japanese art, Tissot amassed a renowned collection and painted some fashionable japonaiseries. In 1870 he fought in the Franco-Prussian War and joined the Paris Commune. He left the war-ravaged city in 1871 for London, where his success continued. Degas asked him to participate in the first impressionist exhibition in 1874, but he declined.

Around 1875 he met Kathleen Newton, who became his companion until her death at age twenty-eight. Overcome with grief, he moved back to Paris. There he had a large solo exhibition in 1883 at the Palais de l'Industrie, showing paintings, works on paper, and enamels. Two years later he exhibited Quinze tableaux sur la femme à Paris, depicting the life of the modern urban woman. From that point on, Tissot became deeply involved with spiritualism and religion. He departed completely from secular subjects and began illustrating the life of Christ." (ClevlandArt.org)