About this work
She appears at age 23: a figure-hugging, floor-length black gown with a plunging neckline, auburn hair swept up in a sophisticated coif, and skin that radiates with a near-lavender glow.
Gautreau stands with her body facing the viewer while her head turns sharply away, her right arm extended behind her for support, her hand resting on a low table — a pose that creates tension in the neck and arm and emphasizes her elegant contours.
The painting is a study in opposition: Sargent shows a woman in a black satin dress with jeweled straps that reveals and hides at the same time, the pale flesh tone of the subject thrown into stark contrast against the dark dress and near-featureless background.
To achieve the unusual pallor of Gautreau's skin, Sargent worked with a palette of lead white, rose madder, vermilion, viridian, and bone black.
Atop her head sits the most delicate of tiaras — a diamond crescent moon, a symbol of Diana, goddess of the hunt. The canvas is monumental — over two meters tall and nearly a meter wide — and every inch of it is organized around the cool, imperious authority of a woman who seems entirely aware she is being watched, and entirely indifferent to it.
Madame X was painted not as a commission, but at Sargent's own request.
He anticipated that a portrait of Gautreau would garner attention at the upcoming Paris Salon and increase interest in portrait commissions.
At Gautreau's suggestion, he traveled to her estate in Brittany in June 1883, where he commenced a series of preparatory works in pencil, watercolors, and oils. When the painting debuted at the Salon of 1884, many who saw it were shocked by Gautreau's haughty demeanor, provocative dress, and the dramatic artificiality of her cosmetics.
The dress had originally been painted with one of the straps hanging off her shoulder; after the negative response, Sargent repainted it to secure it over her shoulder.
He kept the work for over thirty years, and when he finally sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he commented, "I suppose it is the best thing I have done."
Now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, *Madame X* is today regarded as Sargent's most iconic portrait.
On the wall, this
