Portrait of Madame X
Where to see it
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
About the painting
Madame X or Portrait of Madame X is an 1884 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 dress was originally painted with one of the straps hanging off her shoulder, but after a negative response from viewers he repainted it to secure it over her shoulder.
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The scandal resulting from the painting's controversial reception at the Paris Salon of 1884 (negative reviews saw it as vulgar and over-sexualized, or criticized the stark contrast) 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. According to the Musée d'Orsay, it is now regarded as the "Mona Lisa of the American art collection conserved by the Metropolitan Museum of Art".
Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Image: John Singer Sargent; Wikimedia Commons · public domain