John Singer Sargent – Madame X (1884)

Description

This work of art has been digitally enhanced without erasing signs of ageing for the sake of authenticity. Digital paintings are very popular right now as an affordable and stylish way to decorate and personalize your home and office.

John Singer Sargent – Madame X (1884)

“Madame X or Portrait of Madame X is a portrait painting by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite, Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of the French banker Pierre Gautreau. Madame X was painted not as a commission, but at the request of Sargent. It is a study in opposition. Sargent shows a woman posing in a black satin dress with jeweled straps, a dress 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.

The scandal resulting from the painting’s controversial reception at the Paris Salon of 1884 amounted to a temporary setback to Sargent while in France, though it may have helped him later establish a successful career in Britain and America.

The model was an American French creole immigrant from New Orleans in Louisiana who married a French banker twice her age and became notorious in Parisian high society for her beauty and rumored sexual infidelities. She wore lavender powder and prided herself on her appearance. She was referred to as a “professional beauty” – a term for a woman who uses personal skills to advance herself socially. Her unconventional beauty made her an object of fascination for artists; the American painter Edward Simmons claimed that he “could not stop stalking her as one does a deer.”

Sargent was also impressed, and anticipated that a portrait of Gautreau would garner much attention at the upcoming Paris Salon, and increase interest in portrait commissions. He wrote to a friend:

“I have a great desire to paint her portrait and have reason to think she would allow it and is waiting for someone to propose this homage to her beauty. If you are ‘bien avec elle’ and will see her in Paris, you might tell her I am a man of prodigious talent.”

Although she had refused numerous similar requests from painters, Gautreau accepted Sargent’s offer in February 1883. Sargent was an expatriate like Gautreau, and their collaboration has been interpreted as motivated by a shared desire to attain high status in French society.”

After purchase you will have access to a PDF document with a link to these files available for download: 4×8”, 5×10”, 6×12”, 8×16”, 10×20”, 12×24”, 15×30” and 20×40”.

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