John Singer Sargent: Portrait of a Great Beauty, Pt. 2

"Madame X" (strap down, strap up) by J.S. Sargent

"John Singer Sargent's portrait of Madame Gautreau was accepted for the Salon of 1884. Varnishing day did nothing to reassure the painter. On the opening day he was in a state of extreme nervousness. It was the seventh successive year in which he had exhibited. Every Salon had seen the critics more favourable, the public more ready to applaud. But without suggesting that the critics and public of Paris are fickle, it is probably fair to say that popularity, fame and reputation are more subject to violent fluctuations there than in other European capitals. This, at any rate, was to be Sargent's experience.

The doors of the Salon were hardly open before the picture was damned. The public took upon themselves to inveigh against the flagrant insufficiency, judged by prevailing standards, of the sitter's clothing. The critics fell foul of the execution. The Salon was in an uproar. The onslaught was led by the lady's relatives. A demand was made that the picture should be withdrawn. 

It is not among the least of the curiosities of human nature, that while an individual will confess and even call attention to his own failings, he will deeply resent the same office being undertaken by someone else. So it was with the dress of Madame Gautreau. Here a distinguished artist was proclaiming to the public in paint a fact about herself which she had hitherto never made any attempt to conceal, one which had, indeed, formed one of her many social assets. 

Sargent's artist friend Ralph Curtis wrote of this event in a letter to his parents:

'I went home with him and remained there while he went to see the Boits. Madame Gautreau and mere came to his studio 'bathed in tears.' I stayed them off but the mother returned and caught him and made a fearful scene saying, 'My daughter is lost - all of Paris is mocking her... She will die of grief.' John replied it was against all laws to retire a picture. 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 dans le monde, etc., etc. Defending his cause made him feel much better. Still we talked it all over till 1 o'clock here last night and I fear he has never had such a blow. He says he wants to get out of Paris for a time. He goes to England in 3 weeks.'

Anticipating Madame Gautreau's family destroying the picture, Sargent, before the exhibition was over, took it away himself and, after migrating to London, kept it safe in his own studio."

To be continued

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