One interpretation of The Last Evening is that the scene shows the final moments of an on-board romance between a first class passenger and a crew member under the disapproving eyes of his captain and her father. More frequently suggested, however, is that the work depicts the night before a young man sets sail on a voyage leaving his sweetheart behind. Her father, the ship owner, has visited the captain and brought his two daughters with him.
The subject of a ship appealed to Tissot due to his upbringing at the French port of Nantes and his interest in etchings and paintings of the Thames by Whistler. Tissot used his knowledge of ships to depict accurately the rigging and equipment in the scene with an unrigorous naturalism that was typical of the nineteenth century. He addresses the psychological tension of separation through his subtle treatment of the composition, facial expressions, and gesture. He warped the perspective (visible in the planks of the deck) to create a flat awkwardness that reflects the uneasy moment of parting. The scene is not obviously anecdotal, with the woman’s expression and pose only hinting at the emotion beneath. She is costumed rather than clothed, her elegance as both plumage and armour protecting her feelings, maintaining ambiguity. The subtlety of these techniques concords with the compositional tone common in his other English narrative paintings. The woman reclines passively like an invalid. Whilst her lover gazes intently at her, her expression is detached and listless rather than anxious or upset: her resignation to the finality of this parting conveying a sense of unequal emotions. The couple’s last evening has not as much created this disparity as highlighted it. The scene’s monochromatic tonality combined with its wintery atmosphere underscores the moment’s sorrow. Women’s common emotional burden in life to be lonely, left behind, and suffering is a recurrent theme in Tissot’s work.
Some incorrectly argue that the young couple portrayed in The Last Evening are Tissot and his mistress. The painting actually contains the portraits of Captain John Freebody (the captain), his wife Margaret Kennedy (the woman), and her brother Captain Lumley Kennedy (the young sailor) - friends Tissot met upon arrival in London. These models also appear in his Boarding the Yacht, On The Thames, and The Captain and The Mate (all also completed in 1873).
The Last Evening was first exhibited by the Royal Academy in 1873 and was received well by both critics and the public.