John Singer Sargent: Portrait of a Great Beauty

"Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)"
by John Singer Sargent

"In 1883 John Singer Sargent had begun a portrait which was to have a good deal of influence on his career. As far back as 1881 he had met Madame Gautreau in Paris society, where she moved rather conspicuously, shining as a star of considerable beauty, and drawing attention as one dressed in advance of her epoch. It was the period in which in London the professional beauty, with all the specialization which the term connoted, was recognized as having a definite role in the social hierarchy. Madame Gautreau occupied a corresponding position in Paris. 

Immediately after meeting her, Sargent wrote to his friend del Castillo to find out if he could do anything to induce Madame Gautreau to sit to him. 'I have,' he wrote, 'a great desire to paint her portrait and have reason to think she would allow it and is waiting for someone to propose this homage to her beauty. If you are 'bien avec elle' and will see her in Paris, you might tell her that I am a man of prodigious talent.'

The necessary preliminaries were arranged, and the disillusionment seems to have begun quickly, for after the first few sittings he wrote to Vernon Lee from Nice on February 10, 1883: 'In a few days I shall be back in Paris, tackling my other 'envoi,' the Portrait of a Great Beauty. Do you object to people who are 'fardees' to the extent of being a uniform lavender or blotting paper colour all over? If so, you would not care for my sitter, but she has the most beautiful lines, and if the lavender or chlorate of potash-lozenge colour be pretty in itself I should be more than pleased.' 

In another letter, and again to Vernon Lee, he wrote: 'Your letter has just reached me still in this country house (Les Chenes Parame) struggling with the unpaintable beauty and hopeless laziness of Madame Gautreau.'

Even when the picture was nearing completion he was assailed by misgivings. 'My portrait!' he wrote to Castillo, 'it is much changed and far more advanced than when you last saw it. One day I was dissatisfied with it and dashed a tone of light rose over the former gloomy background. I turned the picture upside down, retired to the other end of the studio and looked at it under my arm. Vast improvement. The elancee figure of the model shows to much greater advantage. The picture is framed and on a great easel, and Carolus has been to see it and said, 'Vous pouvez l'envoyer au Salon avec confiance.' Encouraging, but false. I have made up my mind to be refused.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "John Sargent" by Evan Charteris.)