Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-singer-sargent-475" aria-label="More by John Singer Sargent" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Singer Sargent</a>
Mme Gautreau
Presented by Lord Duveen through the Art Fund 1925
actions: postures and motions
adults
clothing and personal items
dress
Gautreau, Virginie
individuals: female
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
standing
woman
<p>The finished portrait, which was exhibited as ‘Madame X’, belongs to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and Tate’s version is a full-size sketch. The sitter was the American wife of a French banker in Paris. Sargent deliberately planned a sensational portrait with an unconventional pose. Her head is shown in sharp profile emphasising her nose; her right arm is twisted and her shoulders exposed. The adverse criticism of the finished portrait at the Paris Salon of 1884 so damaged Sargent’s reputation that he decided to move to Britain.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
2003-10-23
Hayward Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk
2003-10-23
National Art Collections Fund: Centenary Exhibition 2003
Loan-out
12 May 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
12 May 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2009-05-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-05-12
Lawrence and Sargent
Collection based display
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
2012-01-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-01-31
Migrations
Exhibition
16 February 2019 – 2 June 2019
2019-06-02
16 February 2019 – 2 June 2019
2019-06-02
2019-02-16
Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara, Italy)
2019-02-16
Boldini and Fashion
Loan-out
1 October 2022 – 20 June 2023
2023-06-20
1 October 2022 – 31 January 2023
2023-01-31
2022-10-01
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/
1 February 2023 – 20 June 2023
2023-06-20
2023-02-01
Belvedere (Vienna, Austria)
2022-10-01
Klimt. Inspired by Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse...
Loan-out
8 October 2023 – 7 July 2024
2024-07-07
21 February 2024 – 7 July 2024
2024-07-07
2024-02-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-10-08
Sargent and Fashion
Exhibition
21 April 2025 – 11 January 2026
2026-01-11
21 April 2025 – 3 August 2025
2025-08-03
2025-04-21
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
22 September 2025 – 11 January 2026
2026-01-11
2025-09-22
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2025-04-21
Sargent and Paris
Loan-out
Study of Mme Gautreau
support: 2064 × 1079 mm
frame: 2293 × 1302 × 130 mm
Presented by Lord Duveen through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1925
<div class="text">
<p>The finished portrait, which was exhibited as ‘Madame X’, belongs to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and Tate’s version is a full-size sketch. The sitter was the American wife of a French banker in Paris. Sargent deliberately planned a sensational portrait with an unconventional pose. Her head is shown in sharp profile emphasising her nose; her right arm is twisted and her shoulders exposed. The adverse criticism of the finished portrait at the Paris Salon of 1884 so damaged Sargent’s reputation that he decided to move to Britain.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-11-15T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04102</b> STUDY OF MME GAUTREAU <i>c.</i> 1884</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 81 1/4×42 1/2 (206·5×108).
<br/>Presented by Lord Duveen through the National Art-Collections Fund 1925.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Sargent Sale, Christie's, 24 July 1925 (79); withdrawn by arrangement with the members of the Sargent family and acquired by Sir Joseph (later Lord) Duveen for presentation to the Tate Gallery.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., winter 1926 (451, repr. <i>Illustrations of the Sargent Exhibition</i>, p.62).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> <i>N.A.C.F. Report 1925, 1926</i>, p.17, repr.; Charteris, 1927, pp.65, 259 (under year 1885); Mount, 1955, p.430; McKibbin, 1956, p.97; Mount, 1957, p.338.</p>
<p>A study for the ‘<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>Portrait</span></a> of Mme Gautreau’ in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The sitter is Virginie Avengo, wife of Pierre Gautreau, and famous for her beauty in Paris society. This study appears to resemble the finished portrait in every respect so far as pose and setting are concerned. The face, arms and hands are quite fully modelled, but the dress is only brushed in with a first layer of dark body colour and left incomplete at the bottom. The background is only sketched in, as is the table-top on which Mme Gautreau rests her right hand. An outline sketch of a head and shoulders appears in the lower left corner. Sargent began work on the ‘Mme Gautreau’ early in 1883 and only after many sittings did he decide on the final pose; it was finished in his Paris studio in time for the opening of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>Salon</span></a> on 1 May 1884. Although critical reception of the portrait was moderately good, Paris society regarded it with derision, and the sitter and her mother were enraged by the artist's frank portrayal of Mme Gautreau's sartorial eccentricities (as the style of <i>décolleté</i> dress was then considered), and of her use of a peculiar purplish cosmetic which imparted a bluish <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tone</span></a> to her flesh. This portrait, instead of setting the seal on the artist's success in France as he had hoped, frightened French patrons into the studios of the more conventional French portraitists.</p>
<p>Charteris (p.65) was unable to discover whether this study was done before or after the</p>
<p>Metropolitan Museum <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, but Mount (1957, <i>loc. cit</i>) described it as a replica and dated it 1884. In a letter to the compiler (15 May 1963) Mount pointed out that the Metropolitan picture shows considerable revisions, the head has been altered, the arms both moved, the table lowered and the bustle of her gown eliminated; the Tate study incorporates all these revisions and therefore probably followed the finished painting.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults clothing and personal items dress Gautreau, Virginie individuals: female named individuals objects people portraits standing woman