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Sargent_MadameX.jpeg
Madame X is the informal title of a portrait by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau.
One of Paris' notorious beauties, Gautreau wore lavender powder and prided herself on her appearance.
Madame X is a study in opposition. Sargent shows a haughty woman, ostentatious in her black satin dress with its jeweled straps that reveals and hides at the same time. The portrait is characterized by the pale flesh tone of the subject contrasted against a dark colored dress and background.
There is assertion and showiness in the expanse of white skin — from her high forehead down her graceful neck, shoulders, and arms. Though the black of her dress is bold, it is also receding, deep, mysterious. She is surrounded by brown which, while accenting the muted, is not just recessive: its rich color has both glow and shadow.
Sargent chose the pose for Gautreau carefully; her body boldly facing forward while her head is turned in profile. A profile is both assertion and retreat; half of the face is hidden while, at the same time, the part that shows can seem more defined than full face.
The table provides support for Gautreau, and echos her curves and stance. At the time, her pose was considered sexually suggestive.
When the paiting first appeared at the Paris Salon in 1884, people were shocked and scandalized, and Sargent withdrew it from the exhibition. He also changed the title, from the original Portrait de Mme ***, to Madame X — a name more assertive, dramatic and mysterious, and, by accenting the impersonal, giving the illusion of the woman archetype.
External links
- Madame X (http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=2&item=16.53&viewmode=1&isHighlight=1) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Madame X image and essay about the painting. (http://www.jssgallery.org/Paintings/Madame_X.htm)
- Essay: Sargent's 'Madame X'; or, Assertion and Retreat in Woman. (http://www.lynetteabel.org/Art.html)