Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)
John Singer Sargent American
Not on view
Madame Pierre Gautreau (the Louisiana-born Virginie Amélie Avegno; 1859–1915) was known in Paris for her artful appearance. Sargent hoped to enhance his reputation by painting and exhibiting her portrait. Working without a commission but with his sitter’s complicity, he emphasized her daring personal style, showing the right strap of her gown slipping from her shoulder. At the Salon of 1884, the portrait received more ridicule than praise. Sargent repainted the shoulder strap and kept the work for over thirty years. When, eventually, he sold it to the Metropolitan, he commented, “I suppose it is the best thing I have done,” but asked that the Museum disguise the sitter’s name.
#4368. Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)
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![Banner image (from left): The Magnolia Vase, ca. 1893. Manufactured by Tiffany & Co. (1837–present). Designed by John T. Curran (1859–1933). American. Silver, gold, enamel, opals. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Winthrop Atwill, 1899 (99.2). John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925). Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883–84. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1916 (16.53). Thomas Hovenden (American [born Ireland], 1840–1895). The Last Moments of John Brown, 1882–84. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel, 1897 (97.5)](https://www.metmuseum.org/-/media/images/blogs/metlivearts/2015/the-way-they-live/banner.jpg?sc_lang=en&hash=5EDC011A2645988EACFF956EB14EB38A)
