07/05/2025
When I first saw Madame X, I was almost speechless. There is nothing like seeing one of your favourite artists’ works in person. It reaches into your heart in a way you could never have expected.
The landmark exhibition Sargent and Paris opened at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York on April 27. Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the artist’s death. Jointly presented by The Metropolitan and the Musée d’Orsay (where it will appear in autumn), it is the first major solo exhibition of the artist’s work to take place in France. It marks the return of Sargent’s
magnificent paintings of the city that inspired him.
Madame X is the now-notorious 1874 portrayal of the glamorous Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau.
The painting created an unprecedented scandal in Belle Epoque Paris. Gautreau never really regained her reputation and Sargent had to move to London to regain his career.
When Sargent sold the portrait to The Metropolitan in 1916, he described it as “the best thing I’ve done,” and requested that it be exhibited simply as Madame X.
Read more on this captivating exhibition - https://thismagnificentlife.com/sargent-and-paris-comes-to-the-met/
