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Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)

Artist: John Singer Sargent (American, Florence 1856–1925 London)

Date: 1883–84

Culture: American

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 82 1/8 x 43 1/4in. (208.6 x 109.9cm)
Framed: 95 3/4 x 56 5/8 x 5 in. (243.2 x 143.8 x 12.7 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1916

Accession Number: 16.53

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 771
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.

Audio

#4368. Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)

For Audio Guide tours and information, visit metmuseum.org/audioguide.
Signature: [at lower right]: John S. Sargent 1884
The artist, 1884–1916

Essays
America Comes of Age: 1876-1900
Americans in Paris, 1860-1900
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)

Timelines
The United States and Canada, 1800-1900 A.D.

A Walk Through The American Wing
"A Technical Study of John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 40 (2005)
"Scientific Research in The Metropolitan Museum of Art": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 67, no. 1 (Summer, 2009)
One Met. Many Worlds.
Nineteenth-Century America: Paintings and Sculpture
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 9, The United States of America
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Spanish)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Russian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Portuguese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Korean)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Japanese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Italian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (German)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (French)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Chinese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Arabic)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Masterpieces of American Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting
"John Singer Sargent in The Metropolitan Museum of Art": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 57, no. 4 (Spring, 2000)
Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dance: A Very Social History
Bare Witness
The Artist Project
The American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The American Wing: A Guide
American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1846 and 1864
American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent (664)
Canvas (4,855)
Oil (1,678)
Paintings (13,298)
North and Central America (90,581)
United States (86,335)
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