Download Portrait of Madame X by John Singer Sargent: A Controversial Masterpiece and more Exams Painting in PDF only on Docsity! a Closer Look at PORTRAIT OF MADAME X by John Singer Sargent DAN SCOTT 2 In this ebook, I take a closer look at Portrait of Madame X, or Madame X. This is an elegant portrait by John Singer Sargent featuring a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau. Sargent ranked this as one of his best works, but it was also one of his most controversial. Portrait of Madame X 5 • Sargent attempted to keep the identity of Madame Gautreau concealed, originally naming the painting Portrait de Mme ***. But, with all the controversy surround- ing the painting, her identity quickly became public knowledge. The Gautreau fam- ily was embarrassed by this and requested the painting be withdrawn from the Salon. Sargent refused, saying he had painted her “exactly as she was dressed, that nothing could be said of the canvas worse than had been said in print of her appearance”. • Due to the controversy, Sargent left Paris for London and kept the painting in his studio there. Although the painting was initially a setback for Sargent in Paris, he continued to grow in popularity in England and America. As we now know, he would end up becoming one of the most renowned portrait artists in history. • Madame Gautreau subsequently posed for two other artists: Gustave-Claude-Eti- enne Courtois in 1891 and Antonio de La Gandara in 1898. The latter was her fa- vorite. • The painting was eventually sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not long after the death of Madame Gautreau. The painting is still with that Museum. Gustave Courtois, Madame Gautreau, 1891 Antonio de La Gándara, Madame Pierre Gautreau, 1898 6 Color and Light Sargent was restrained with his use of color in this portrait, which features a subtle palette of browns, grays, and blacks. There is a powerful contrast between the soft, light skin tones and the dark, imposing browns and blacks in the rest of the painting. This technique is known as chiaroscuro (which means “light-dark”). Also, notice how most of the light colors are around the subject’s face. It then gets darker as you go towards the bottom of the painting. This helps focus your attention around the top of the painting. To demonstrate the use of light and dark in the painting, I prepared a simple two-val- ue notan (below). This is a simplified version of the painting with just two values, white and black. White represents the lights and black represents the darks. Notice how much information is conveyed with just these two values. This also shows how mostly light colors were used for the skin tones, and mostly dark colors were used for everything else. A key feature of Madame Gautreau’s appearance was her pale skin. She was even known to apply a laven- der powder which further softened her appearance. To paint the pale skin tones, Sargent used a combi- nation of lead white, rose madder, vermilion, viridian, and bone black. The colors are light and there are no dramatic shifts in color on her skin (apart from her facial features). In particular, notice how Sargent ren- dered the subject’s neck-line with only the slightest change in color. 7 The soft, skin tones contrast against the rather dramatic colors and shadows used in the rest of the painting, particularly the silky black dress. On one hand, you have the subtle contours of the face which are depicted with nothing but the slightest of color changes, and on the other hand, you have the imposing blacks and grays picking up the twists and turns in the dress.
