Luis Fernando Romo

Updated Friday, March 15, 2024-9:39 p.m.

The morbidity is served.

Until July 7, the

Tate Britain

offers an original exhibition called

Sargent and Fashion

.

At first glance it seems somewhat bland, but quite the opposite.

This is the first major exhibition by the

portrait painter John Singer Sargent

that combines his work with some of the delicate period costumes and accessories of his clients.

For him,

clothing

was essential to reflect society and elaborate the pictorial composition.

The American artist became a

favorite of aristocrats and nouveau riche

in Parisian and London society.

His style was unparalleled, as he had studied

Velázquez

conscientiously .

John Singer Sangent was the favorite portraitist of the greats but the scandal also affected him.

EMEM

Among

all

the

paintings

,

Madame

​

​

​

​

The protagonist in question was

Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau,

a wealthy white Creole from New Orleans who, after the death of her father in the Civil War,

settled in Paris

at the age of eight.

Her mother was an expert

social careerist

who got her girl married at the age of 18

to a rich banker:

Pierre-Louis Gautreau, two decades older than her and with whom

she had a daughter,

Louise.

When the portrait of Mimi, as she was familiarly called,

was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1884,

pandemonium

ensued

.

The scandal was so notorious that

the artist left for London.

The reason for such scandal was that Sargent painted Virginie

highlighting the sexual aspect

of a married woman in a

tight black satin evening dress

with a plunging neckline and one of the straps

slipping

sensually from her right shoulder.

Her arms were bare and the wedding ring was on her left hand.

For the

puritanical French society,

being unfaithful was not frowned upon -Virginie was famous for her beauty but also for her

infidelities

, but for a woman to pose in that way was not acceptable.

Furthermore, her portrait stands out for the

extreme paleness of Virginie's skin

, bleached with ground lavender and rice powder, as well as for her henna-dyed hair and outlined eyebrows.

Neither makeup nor hair dye

were accepted by the high society of the time.

To know more

Art.

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Salvator Mundi: Corinna's prosecutor closes the case of the 410 million painting

Her way of posing,

looking sideways,

with her gaze lost in the infinitive and with

her hair tied up

in a bun adorned with a half-moon of diamonds, was also not liked.

Too haughty and defiant

for the canons of the time.

Virginie liked to pose as the

goddesses of

Greek and Roman mythology and she was also inspired by the Empress Josephine Bonaparte, whom she deeply admired.

Locked in her residence

Considered one of the

most elegant women

, she was a socialite whose style she owed to the

Maison Félix

and the classically inspired jewelry she used to wear at

parties and balls.

All the artists of the time wanted to portray her but

Sargent's painting was her ruin.

The criticism at the Paris Salon of 1884 was also

destructive

for the painter.

The

New York Times

critic wrote that the portrait "is a caricature. The figure's pose is absurd and the bluish color atrocious," and artist Ralph Curtis stated that it "appeared to be decomposing like a corpse."

"My daughter is lost," his mother summarized

him in the face of the scandal.

A year later, Sargent retouched a portion of the frame by putting

the stay in place.

But it was too late.

The hubbub with which he had started it all in the winter of 1883, when Sargent made 30 drawings in pencil, oil and watercolor at the Gautreu couple's castle of Les Chênes,

turned to gall.

That exhibition of the painting marked

the end for both of them.

The artist moved to London permanently, his work hung in his studio and the socialite ended up

defenestrated

.

His last years were fateful.

They say that

her husband abandoned her

and that she wandered aimlessly on the beaches of Cannes.

She lived practically

cloistered in her residence,

where she gave the order that all the blinds be closed and all the mirrors removed.

She didn't want to see each other.

And from time to time

she only went out at night.

He died in 1915 at the age of 56.

When Sargent learned of her death he decided

to sell the painting for $1,000 to the Metropolitan

of New York on the condition that the lady's name not be revealed.

"I think it's the best thing I've ever done," he said.

This is how Madame X

was born.