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Video: How an uncomplicated picture almost destroyed the artist's career and the heroine's reputation: "Portrait of Madame X"
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
When John Singer Sargent unveiled his portrait of a woman in black in 1884, Parisian society literally flared with indignation. The artist was forced to leave the country, and the heroine of the portrait went into the shadows for a long time. What so outraged the public in the 19th century?
"Portrait of Madame X" is an elegant portrait of John Singer Sargent, featuring a young socialite, Virginie Amelie Avigno Gautro. Virginie Gautro is the wife of a wealthy businessman Pierre Gautro. At that time, Virginie had the status of a "professional beauty". This term refers to people who have used their social skills and appearance to develop in society.
Work on the painting
The painting was not ordered, it was Sargent's personal initiative to paint a portrait of a young woman. He conveyed his request to Virginia through their mutual friend, in a letter to which he wrote: “I have a great desire to paint her portrait, and I have reason to believe that she will allow it. You can tell her that I have an amazing talent. " Finally, after two years of negotiations through a friend, Madame Gautreau finally agreed to sit down at the portrait of Sargent. In the process of writing, the artist prepared a lot of sketches and sketches for the main work. Sargent spent a long time choosing the right pose, gestures, facial expressions and interior design. The work went on especially for a long time due to the behavior of Gautro herself. Sargent complained about her "beauty that cannot be portrayed and her hopeless laziness." Indeed, Virginie was extremely not assiduous. In addition, due to her active social life, she did not have enough time to pose for the artist. It took Sargent 2 years to complete the painting.
Show in the Salon
The portrait was exhibited at the Salon in 1884. With an impressive size (234, 85 × 109, 86 cm) and graceful beauty of the model, Sargent and Gautro herself hoped for an enchanting performance. But it was not so … The painting horrified the Parisians, it was greeted with sharp criticism and contradictions. The public of that time considered the picture too frank and provocative. And the point is not at all in the deathly pallor of the skin, not in the heroine's scarlet ear, not in a too sharp nose. The most important thing that alerted the audience was open shoulders and a lowered shoulder strap. It was the dress that caused the disaster. Sargent tried to hide the identity of the mysterious Madame, initially calling the painting "Portrait of Madame". But, despite all the contradictions in the assessment of the picture, her personality quickly became public. Before the picture debuted, Gautro was already a gossip heroine for her outspoken style and immodest connections (but it was not customary to talk about this). And "Portrait of Madame X" literally exposed all the indecency of her behavior in public. Virginie's mother, Maria Virginia de Ternant, made a real scene for the artist, declaring: “All Paris is making fun of my daughter. She is destroyed … She will die of chagrin. " The Gautro family was overshadowed by Virginia's damaged reputation and asked to remove the painting from the Salon. Sargent refused, but offered to correct his unenviable position: he rewrote the style of the dress and returned the shoulder strap. The adjustments did not save the situation, on the contrary, after the changes, the dress began to look awkward.
The painting received such a huge response that Sargent had to move from Paris to London and find refuge from the humiliation he received. He kept the painting in his studio. Sargent expected the complete destruction of his career, but fate turned out to be more favorable to him: the artist's arrogance caused an exorbitant demand for portraits among the fashionable British and American public. As is now known, John Singer Sargent became one of the most famous portrait painters in history. A similar situation happened with Virginie. After the scandal, she went into the shadows, but a century passed and Virginie Gautro became a real style icon, revered all over the world for decades. Her legacy is elegance, beauty and grace, and scandals make her personality even more interesting. Madame Gautreau subsequently posed for two other artists: Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois in 1891 and Antonio de la Gundara in 1898. The portrait of the last master became her favorite.
Color, light and composition
Sargent was limited to the use of color in this portrait, which has a subtle palette of browns, grays, and blacks. There is a strong, intentional contrast between soft, lighter skin tones and dark, imposing browns and blacks in the rest of the painting. This method is known as chiaroscuro (meaning chiaroscuro). The key feature of Madame Gautreau's appearance was her pale skin. She was even known for applying lavender powder, which brightened her skin even more. The colors in the painting are light, there are no abrupt color changes on her skin (except for facial features). In particular, Sargent was able to masterfully visualize the line of the heroine's neck with the slightest change in color. The heroine's hairstyle is a tribute to the style of the Hellenic era. Her tiara with a dazzling diamond crescent is an allusion to Diana, the goddess of the hunt and the moon. Taken together, this can be considered the key to this lady's nightlife. Today "Portrait of Madame X" by John Singer Sargent is considered a brilliant canvas, a delightful reflection of classic beauty and femininity. Sargent's painting is a monument of American art. Today it belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1916, Sargent sold the portrait to the Met, to the director of which he wrote: “I think this is the best that I have written”).
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