Madame X Madame Pierre Gautreau , Oil on canvas; Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, Source: The Met. G autreau wears a black evening dress with a heart-shaped velvet bodice with a long pointed front and a black satin skirt. She carries a black fan and has powdered her skin to achieve an artificially white complexion Sidlauskas Alice Milbank Fig. The silhouette is a very fashionable small-waisted one, likely created by extensive boning in the bodice. The dress design was undoubtedly a unique one created for Madame Gautreau herself, but by this period some of the sewing could have been done on machine.
The black fan she holds could easily have been purchased at a department store. Private Collection. Source: JSS Gallery. Source: Wikimedia. Oil on canvas; x Source: Artnet. Evening dress , ca. Silk; length at cb a : Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Madame Gautreau , Source: Arthistory. Mesnil French. Source: Author. Le Figaro raved about her dress of red velvet with a bodice of white satin, as did La Gazette Rose about her white satin dress with pearl netting….
In an column on the fashions worn by actresses on the stage where many new styles debuted , the columnist for La Vie Moderne particularly praised that worn by Mlle Marie Magnier Fig. In the aftermath, Gautreau was humiliated and Sargent soon left Paris and moved to London permanently. He repainted the shoulder strap to raise it up and changed the title into Madame X , giving the illusion of the woman archetype. After keeping the work in his studio for thirty years, he began to exhibit it in a number of international exhibitions from Over the years, the Madame X painting has become more famous for the scandal it caused than for any artistic merit.
In , mid-century American critic Hilton Kramer described it as "a solid and comfortable picture". The subject of John Singer Sargent's most famous painting was twenty-three-year-old New Orleans Creole Virginie Gautreau, who moved to Paris and quickly became the "it girl" of her day. A relative unknown at the time, Sargent won the commission to paint her; the two must have recognized in each other a like-minded hunger for fame. Unveiled at the Paris Salon, Gautreau's portrait generated the attention she craved-but it led to infamy rather than stardom.
Sargent had painted one strap of Gautreau's dress dangling from her shoulder, suggesting either the prelude to or the aftermath of sex. Her reputation irreparably damaged, Gautreau retired from public life, destroying all the mirrors in her home. Drawing on documents from private collections and other previously unexamined materials, and featuring a cast of characters including Oscar Wilde and Richard Wagner, Strapless is a tale of art and celebrity, obsession and betrayal.
All images via Wikimedia Commons. December 30, Elena Martinique. It wasn't until , however, that technical examination including X-radiography and infrared reflectography uncovered multiple changes Sargent made while finishing the portrait for the Salon of X-radiographs of the torso and head show numerous changes by the artist.
An outline of the painted surface is superimposed on the X-radiograph. It was Sargent's practice to keep photographs of his paintings, and a unique image of the portrait as it appeared at the Salon was included in a gift from Sargent's sister to the Museum. The painting seen in the photograph was not well received; Sargent's creative experiment was a disaster for both him and for the reputation of Madame Gautreau. She looks decomposed. All the women jeer.
All the a. And the young John Singer Sargent, who had commissions from fellow expats but craved French acceptance, was keen to make his. So there they were, the American society madam and the American painter, both in their late 20s, both eager for their big break.
That bare shoulder, plus the wedding ring on her left hand, made a scandalous combination. It signified, not very subtly, that this married woman would look kindly on introductions from other men. He knew the portrait of Mme Gautreau was a risk. But never had he had such bad reviews. Critics compared her skin tones to those of a corpse. Newspapers published cartoons and satirical poetry mocking both artist and model. His portrait of the so-called beautiful Mme Gauthraut [sic]… is a caricature.
The pose of the figure is absurd, and the bluish coloring atrocious. She tried to have the painting pulled from the Salon, to no avail. See this in context, though.
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