Revisiting Madame X
In 1884 at the Paris Salon, John Singer Sargent debuted his painting of socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau. He was hoping that this painting would secure his career as a portrait artist. I’m certain Sargent never thought there would be such a controversy over this beautiful portrait of a 25 year old woman. Most people knew of Madame Gautreau and her colorful affairs but were outraged that the portrait seemed to flaunt her infidelity especially since she was painted in a provocative dress for the time but even more scandalous was her strap that had fallen off her shoulder. Sargent later repainted the area with the strap securely on Madame’s shoulder.
It’s interesting how what we (viewers) may see as minor details can muster up so much emotion and rich story. This was exactly what happened to Sargent and instead of staying in France to work, he was forced to move to England where he became one of the most famous portrait painters in history.
If the first goal of the portrait painter is to achieve a likeness, then the second goal should be to suggest in some way who they are, where they came from or some kind of story. It can be very simple from a large pearl earring to a smokey smile with an imaginary landscape to a revealing dress and actually for me, the simpler the better. We don’t need to spell every detail out.
In our next Portrait workshop at Kline Academy with Cheryl Kline, we will be revisiting “Madame X.”
Kline said “Jennifer Fabos was visiting with me last week and she was wearing a black evening dress with shoulder straps, her hair was pinned up and for a minute I did a double take…Madame X!” So be prepared to do a contemporary version of this masterful painting working with both live model- Jennifer Fabos, and photo reference.
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| Caption: John Singer Sargent “Madame X”. Inset: Jennifer Fabos, Model for the Madame X workshop |
