Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)

John Singer Sargent

Painted

1883–84

Collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A full-length portrait of Virginie Amélie Gautreau, an American-born beauty of Paris society, shown in profile, her pale skin set against a black gown. When it appeared at the Paris Salon of 1884, one jewelled strap slipping from her shoulder caused a scandal; Sargent repainted the strap in place and before long moved to London. He kept the picture for more than thirty years before selling it to the Metropolitan Museum in 1916.

Object record (Wikimedia Commons) · Public domain

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