Erotic Entry: Part 3

It may be a balmy 50 degrees Fahrenheit in New York today; however, on the calendar there is a very clear square stating that today is also February 1st. 

If you prefer a chill in your winter air, then perhaps the cool, arsenic-ridden and ashen, almost blue skin of Madame Gautreau, or more commonly referred to as Madame X, will provide the necessary drop in temperature.

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     John Singer Sargent, Madame X, 1884, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan

Photo Courtesy of WikiArt

Madame Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau’s portrait is perhaps labeled Madame X because of its X-rated nature. An American expatriate who married a French banker, Pierre Gautreau, was notorious in Parisian society for her mesmerizing beauty and adulterous tendencies. Madame Gautreau captivated Monsieur Gatreau with her scintillatingly luminescent skin. No one is born with the coloration of a vampire, so Madame Gautreau took aesthetic matters into her own hands by piling on the lavender powder. She even partook in a common beauty regimen of the time of ingesting arsenic to glow from the inside out. The stark contrast of her delectably incandescent skin set against the heavy brown background and the midnight black dress is absolutely arresting, and seductive. John Singer Sargent was another American expat living in Paris. He eked out a living by commissions; however, Sargent was so impressed by Madame Gautreau’s appearance that he requested to paint her. The first version of the picture featured Madame X’s right strap shimmying down her shoulder, which was considered too sexually charged and Sargent had to repaint the strap atop her shoulder. A critic wrote in Le Figaro, a French newspaper, “One more struggle and the lady will be free.” 

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