Most people know John Singer Sargent's infamous painting 'Madame X' even if they don't know the name and have never heard of the artist because this painting has quite the sensational story attached to it.Īccording to surrounding lore, Sargent initially painted 'Madame X' with the right strap of her black gown slipping off of her shoulder.When the painting debuted at the 1884 Salon in Paris ( the place to have a painting displayed at the time and a good signifier of current or future artistic success) it created an uproar, so scandalous was the pose. Davis will make a national author tour.I read this book in August 2008 and have been meaning to review it ever since. I Am Madame X, published by Scribner in March, and an exhibition of Sargent's women planned to open at New York's Adelson Galleries in November. (Aug.)įYI: Other X-iana include Gioia Diliberto's fictional Regrettably, her diligent research yields scarcely a word from Amelie thus, the model remains a strangely weightless heroine, gliding amid this cast of characters like a silent sphinx. Because historical record will not substantiate a longed-for romance between Sargent and Gautreau, Davis stiffly imports tangential figures such as the seductive gynecologist Samuel-Jean Pozzi to deliver lusty intrigue. 'Tyrannized' by the portrait that mocked her fast-fading form, the model obsessively avoided mirrors until her death in 1915. By Davis's compelling report, the artist worked to deflect the ensuing scandal (partially by painting a glowing icon of flowering innocence), while Amelie slid into social obscurity. After months of laboring, Sargent produced the racier version of Madame X. most fascinating woman,' he would secure his artistic acclaim.

She met young John Singer Sargent, a 'fellow upstart American,' who imagined that, by painting Paris's 'most original. Born to Creole New Orleans aristocrats in 1859, Virginie Amelie Gautreau moved to Paris with her family following her father's death, married an older man made rich by the fertilizer trade and cultivated a beauty that, even in fashion-frenzied Paris, earned her widespread fame. Davis has worked as a story editor and analyst for most of the big film companies, and here seeks the woman behind Sargent's most celebrated, enigmatic profile.

Has hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for decades, following its scandalous debut in the Paris Salon in 1884, and subsequent retouching of the work to restore the dangling dress strap to the figure's impossibly white bare shoulder.

Strapless by deborah davis