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.
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".
Background
Virginie Gautreau was an American French creole who emigrated from New Orleans to Paris where she married a French banker twice her age. She became rather 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:
<blockquote>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. By the fall, Sargent's interest in the venture was nearing completion, "The summer is definitely over and with it, I admit, is my pleasure at being at Les Chênes [Gautreau's estate]".
Sargent chose the pose for Gautreau carefully: her body boldly faces 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 echoes her curves and stance. At the time, her pose was considered sexually suggestive. As originally exhibited, one strap of her gown had fallen down Gautreau's right shoulder, suggesting the possibility of further revelation; "One more struggle", wrote a critic in Le Figaro, "and the lady will be free".
The image's erotic suggestion is of a distinctly upper-class sort: unnaturally pale skin, cinched waist, severity of profile and an emphasis on aristocratic bone structure all imply a distant sexuality "under the professional control of the sitter", rather than offered for the viewer's delectation. The painting features several subtle classical references: sirens of Greek mythology adorn the table's legs, and the crescent tiara worn by Gautreau symbolizes the goddess Diana. The latter was not contrived by the artist, but was part of Gautreau's self-display.
Shortly after the exhibition's opening, negative reviews began pouring in. The first, in L'Événement (a French newspaper), read:<blockquote>"Mr. Sargent made a mistake if he thinks he expressed the shattering beauty of his model ... . Even recognizing certain qualities that the painting has, we are shocked by the spineless expression and the vulgar character of the figure."</blockquote>Similar reviews followed suit. Many focused on the perceived unattractiveness of the painting's subject, particularly in comparison to the reputation Gautreau (whose identity was only thinly veiled by the anonymity of the painting's title) had as a great beauty, and often focusing on her skin, which was described as "pallid" and "corpse-ish". The painting's standoffish promiscuity was lampooned. La Vie Parisienne published a caricature of Madame X, depicting Gautreau with her bosom exposed. The caption read: "Mélie, your dress is falling off!" "It's on purpose. ... And leave me alone anyway, won't you?" Gautreau, too, was distressed: "Mde. Gautreau and mère [mother] came to his studio 'bathed in tears.'" Later, Sargent overpainted the shoulder strap to raise it up and make it look more securely fastened. An unfinished version of the same pose, in which the position of the right shoulder strap remained unresolved, is in the Tate, London.
Sargent hung Madame X first in his Paris studio, and later in his studio in London. Starting in 1905, he displayed it in a number of international exhibitions. In 1960, Cuban-American fashion designer Luis Estévez created a dress based on the dress depicted in Madame X. Dina Merrill modeled the Estévez dress for photographer Milton H. Greene published in Life magazine on January 11, 1960.
Nicole Kidman was photographed in a similar dress and pose for Vogue magazine in 1999.
Analysis
Art historians have used Madame X to examine the conventions, particularly regarding sexuality and dress, of the time period during which it was exhibited.
Concerning the black gown depicted in the portrait, dress historian Aileen Ribeiro writes that "The dress is so scandalous even an actress would have thought twice about wearing it for a portrait." Valerie Steele, a dress historian and the curator of the Museum at FIT, further contextualizes why contemporary audiences found Madame X<nowiki/>'s dress so shocking: "'Though the cuirass would have had some kind of lining to soak up sweat, the model would not have been wearing any underwear."
Art historian Dorothy Moss analyzed contemporary reviews, positing that "The language of contemporary criticism reveals that it was [Sargent's] emphasis on the sitter's artifice that, above all, excited the critics." Art historian Elizabeth Renes explains that "Sargent uses two techniques in Madame X to bring focus to her 'whiteness' and her 'cosmetic exterior': the dark background, which creates a high contrast to further highlight her skin, and the uncomfortable, sculptural pose, paired with the simplicity of the gown, which forces more of her flesh into view." Naturalness was the ideal of beauty at the time, and Madame X "defiantly violated this cherished precept of nineteenth-century decorum."
Art historian Susan Sidlauskas lists "the brazenness of [Gautreau's] self-display; the singularity of her adornments, both sartorial and cosmetic; and the crudeness of her American ambitiousness" as "evident" reasons why audiences were offended by Madame X. Sidlauskas also argues that, on a subconscious level, "Gautreau aroused the anxieties of her audience" as her carefully-styled appearance rested in an uncanny valley between life and death. Sidlauskas particularly focuses on Gautreau's powdered skin, which audiences found unsettling. By inviting attention, but not necessarily attraction, "Gautreauthrough Sargentbrazenly defied the conventions for feminine display, and in so doing spurned the visible signs of masculine possession."