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Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X (Hardcover)

by Deborah Davis (Author) "Eighteen fifty-seven was a good year for Anatole Avegno and a great year for New Orleans..." (more)
Key Phrases: fallen strap, fallen shoulder strap, uncanny spectacle, New Orleans, Marie Virginie, Madame Gautreau (more...)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
'Detestable!' 'Monstrous!' 'Vulgar!' were just three of the adjectives hurled by critics and the public at the painting Madame X when it was first displayed at the Paris Salon in 1884. Not only was artist John Singer Sargent excoriated for indecency, but model Amelie Gautreau was vilified as little more than a whore. Both were forced to flee Paris with their reputations in tatters. And the offence? Sargent had painted a portrait of Gautreau in a black gown, the strap having slid from her milky right shoulder to the side of her arm, thus provoking an image of sexual invitation or possibly the suggestion of an unfinished post-coital sartorial rearrangement. It is impossible to imagine such a painting causing a similar public outrage today, and author Deborah Davis has researched her subject thoroughly to produce a fascinating book providing biographical details of both Sargent and Gautreau, as well as the aftermath of the scandal, during which Sargent actually repainted the strap on Gautreau's shoulder. Highly recommended. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
The story behind the legendary John Singer Sargent painting that propelled the artist to international renown but condemned his subject to a life of public ridicule.

John Singer Sargent's Madame X is one of the world's best-known portraits. As the Metropolitan's most frequently requested painting for loans, it travels to museums around the globe. The image of "Madame X" decorates book and magazine covers, greeting cards and screen savers. She's even been immortalized as a Madame Alexander doll.

Few people, though, know the fascinating story behind the painting. "Madame X" was actually a twenty-three-year-old New Orleans Creole, Virginie Gautreau, who moved to Paris and quickly became the "it girl" of her day. All the leading artists wanted to paint her, but it was Sargent, a relative nobody, who won the commission. Gautreau and Sargent must have recognized in each other a like-minded hunger for fame.

Unveiled at the 1884 Paris Salon, Gautreau's portrait did generate the attention she craved-but it led to infamy rather than stardom. Sargent had painted one strap of Gautreau's dress dangling from her shoulder, suggesting, to outraged Parisian viewers, either the prelude or the aftermath of sex. Her reputation irreparably damaged, Gautreau retired from public life, destroying all the mirrors in her home so she would never have to look at herself again.

Why had Sargent chosen to portray her in such a provoc-ative manner? Was the painting, with the scandal it generated, the machination of a sexually conflicted man who desired a woman and a lifestyle he could never possess? Drawing on documents from private collections and other previously unexamined materials and featuring a cast of characters including Oscar Wilde and Richard Wagner, Strapless is an enthralling tale of art and celebrity, obsession and betrayal.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Tarcher (July 24, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1585422215
ISBN-13: 978-1585422210
Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #72,998 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#3 in Books > Arts & Photography > Artists, A-Z > ( S-U ) > Sargent, John Singer
#11 in Books > Arts & Photography > Painting > Portraits
#22 in Books > History > Europe > France > Paris

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Eighteen fifty-seven was a good year for Anatole Avegno and a great year for New Orleans. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fallen strap, fallen shoulder strap, uncanny spectacle, varnishing day

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Orleans, Marie Virginie, Madame Gautreau, New York, John Singer Sargent, United States, Judith Gautier, Henry James, Albert de Belleroche, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Lily Millet, Anatole Avegno, Sarah Bernhardt, Third Republic, Mary Sargent, Rue Jouffroy, Ben del Castillo, Franco-Prussian War, Louise Burckhardt, Madame Louise, Mardi Gras, Paris Salon, Robert de Montesquiou, Vernon Lee, While Sargent

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 52 books:

John Singer Sargent (Fine Art Series) by Edmund Swinglehurst on 18 pages
John Sargent by Charteris on 10 pages
John Singer Sargent by Carter Ratcliff on 6 pages
Judith Gautier: A Biography by Joanna Richardson on 4 pages
John Singer Sargent (Library of American Art) by Trevor Fairbrother on 4 pages

See all 52 books this book cites

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

I Am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto

Discusses:

John Singer Sargent by Mr. Trevor Fairbrother

Discusses:

John Singer Sargent by Richard Ormond

Discusses:

John Singer Sargent by Stanley Olson

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	90% buy the item featured on this page: Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X 4.4 out of 5 stars (24)
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	3% buy Sargent Portrait Drawings: 42 Works by John Singer Sargent (Dover Art Library) 4.7 out of 5 stars (19) $6.95
	2% buy I Am Madame X: A Novel 3.7 out of 5 stars (26) $11.70

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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The unpaintable beauty and hopeless laziness...", October 3, 2003

By	Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

The title of this review refers to something John Singer Sargent wrote in a letter when he was attempting to complete the "Madame X," painting. He was having a great deal of difficulty in deciding what pose Madame Gautreau should adopt for the painting. It didn't help that the 24 year old woman appeared to suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder: she hated to hold a pose. She was rich, she was young, and, well, she had other things to do! I have to admit that when I read on the book jacket that "Deborah Davis is a writer and veteran film executive...",I was a bit put off. I thought, "Oh, this is going to be presented in a 'Hollywood' way, with a lot of style but no substance." Well, shame on me. Ms. Davis (who admits she is not an art "expert") has written a very good book. Although the book is relatively brief, the author covers a lot of ground. Even though the book is not meant to be a biography of Sargent, we still get a pretty good feel for what the man was like: sensitive, intelligent, ambitious, lonely and sexually conflicted. Sargent had already made a pretty good name for himself before he painted Amelie Gautreau. By painting a celebrated beauty, however, he was going for the brass ring - he was hoping to become even more well known and to generate more commissions for portraits of the rich and famous. When Ms. Davis talks about the actual public display of the painting at the 1884 Paris Salon, she also is quite good. We learn about the quirks of a culture where it was perfectly fine to have acres of naked flesh cavorting in a historical painting, but it was scandalous to have a fallen shoulder strap if you were painting a real, contemporary woman. Although this is not an academic work, it is still fascinating from a psychological/sociological standpoint. While Sargent was working on the portrait, Amelie (and her mother) thought it was wonderful. However, after the critics trashed it (and the public found it immoral), mother and daughter wanted nothing more to do with it. Sargent kept the painting because Amelie Gautreau wouldn't buy it. She had wanted fame, but not of this sort. Sargent had to "re-group" and for later Salons came up with paintings that were non-controversial but still showed off his virtuosity. After awhile the scandal was forgotten and Sargent was back in vogue. (In a classic case of "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it," in later years Sargent was so much in demand for portraits that he no longer wanted to do them. As Ms. Davis writes, "Sargent derisively spelled the word 'paughtrait,' and declared 'No more mugs!' to whoever would listen.) As Amelie Gautreau got older, and as the public forgot about her, she, sadly, began longing for any kind of fame. She commissioned other portraits, none of which could measure up to Sargent's. In 1891, in a pictorial shout for attention, she had Gustave Courtois do a portrait of her: she posed in a white gown (rather than the black gown she had worn for Sargent), with, yes, a fallen shoulder strap. If this book has any fault, it is that Amelie Gautreau comes across as a bit of a cipher. All we see are her vanity and attempts to bring attention to herself. It's a bit of a caricature, really. I'm not sure if that's because there's a paucity of information about her (especially when compared to Sargent) or if it's because it bolsters Ms. Davis's argument that with "Madame X," Sargent was trying to portray an exemplar of a shallow segment of society. Still, as a study of Sargent, of ambition - both professional and social, and of the late 19th century Paris art world (and of how artistic reputations rise and fall like the tides), this is a very rewarding read.

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28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Biography, August 18, 2004

By	HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

STRAPLESS is an excellent work of scholarship, combining biographies of two unrelated people whose stories always will be entwined in popular theory.

Here, author Deborah Davis traces the lives of artist John Singer Sargent and the subject of his most famous painting, Madame X.

Madame X was a renowned beauty in late 19th century Paris named Virginie Gautreau. Oddly, both Sargent and Gautreau were American ex-patriates, and Davis does an excellent job of describing the American colony in Paris at that particular time.

At the moment of its completion, in the portrait of Virginie, her gown had a strap depicted as falling off her shoulder. So decadent was this considered, so blatantly alluding to things sensual, that the portrait caused a scandal.

Sargent then was considered a rising star and both he and Virginie expected this portrait to solidify their places among the stars of the Belle Epoque. Yet luster would not be added to either of their reputations, not even after Sargent had re-painted the strap into its proper place.

Sargent fled to England, where his prestige slowly recovered. Gautreau, however, remained a virtual outcast of society as a consequence of the negative reaction. Over the decades, Sargent has remained famous, while Virginie's actual name has fallen into obscurity.

And if Davis had not decided to step in and tell the whole tale, Virgine probably would have remained obscure. STRAPLESS shows marvelous research about a fascinating moment in time.

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Davis has painted a vibrant and luminous picture!, September 11, 2003

By A Customer

As an artist and a art historian, I was very pleased to get new insight into the story behind the painting Madame X and the people and places that surrounded her creation. As in The DaVinci Code, many mysteries were uncovered in an intriquing way (but without all of the running around). Bravo for writing a book that is accessible to artists and laypeople alike. Davis has painted a picture of the process the artist goes through when making decisions that remain on the canvas years after the artist and model are long gone. Worth taking the time to read the story and to see the beautiful reproductions of Sargent's paintings.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Madame X
The definitive work on the life of Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, better known to the world today as MADAME X. Read more

Published 3 months ago by TED STRUTZ

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on art history for enthusiasts and art historians alike.
I read this book in August 2008 and have been meaning to review it ever since. For shame.

Most people know John Singer Sargent's infamous painting "Madame X" even if... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Miss Print

4.0 out of 5 stars Loved This!
Such an interesting book. I've always been fascinated by the Madame X painting, so when I saw this book I simply HAD to read it. It did not disappoint me at all.

Published 7 months ago by Margaret Mitchell

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece
Amazingly well researched and written. This lovely book goes into the details of how one of the most controversial portraits came to be. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Stacey M Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars A Timeless Image
When I was younger, I saw this image in an art book and, without reading anything about it, decided that it was a fasion plate from the 1950's. Read more

Published 22 months ago by HLC

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging story, historical glimpse of 19th-cent France, & biography of Sargent to boot
This book is about the French-via-Creole socialite Amelie Gautreau's interaction with American-expatriate painter John Singer Sargent, an encounter that resulted in a painting... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Mr. Chips

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, readable history of the time, painter and subjects
In a brief, readable book, Davis does a good job giving us an overview of Gilded Age Paris, the social changes between Sargent Madame X's debut and paintings of Mrs. Read more

Published on July 3, 2007 by Reviewer

5.0 out of 5 stars A life behind the canvas.
Two very interesting lives that leave you with the desire to know more about "Belle Epoque". Looking forward to another book by Deborah Davis.

Published on March 26, 2007 by Gary W. Shields

5.0 out of 5 stars Strapless
In la belle epoque France, people lined up for the annual art exhibition the way we do today for blockbuster movies. Read more

Published on November 15, 2006 by Dana Stabenow

5.0 out of 5 stars An in-depth story about an artist and an up and coming
socialite whose nortorious painting by Sargent was the talk of all Paris that resulted in her social humiliation and of Sargent's leaving Paris society because of it... Read more

Published on April 21, 2005 by La Reyna

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