Realist painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was born to American parents in Florence, Italy and spent less than one year of his life in the United States. Sometime around 1881 in Paris, the expatriate was introduced to the daughter of Louisiana's late Major Anatole Avegno and Marie Virginie de Ternantto, Virginie Avegno (1859-1915), who met and married the banker Pierre Gautreau in that city. Sargent painted the beguiling beauty's portrait in Brittany shortly thereafter, but encountered problems with the picture's perspective and pose as revealed by numerous studies for the work. The critics' overwhelmingly negative reaction to Sargent's "scandalous" portrait at the Paris Salon of 1884 caused him to relocate to London.
Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) joins some 100 other paintings by American artists such as James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and Winslow Homer (1836-1910) in Americans in Paris, 1860-1900. The exhibition explores why these painters and 32 others were drawn to Paris, then the art world's capital, in the last four decades of the Nineteenth Century and how they reacted to the artistic innovations they witnessed while there.
"Americans in Paris, 1860-1900" is on view from October 24, 2006 to January 28, 2007 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82 Street, New York, NY 10028-0198 (Telephone: 212-535-7710; Website). The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM and Friday and Saturday from 9:30 AM to 9:00 PM. SUGGESTED admission is $20.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens (65 years of age and older) and $10.00 for students. This includes same-day admission to The Cloisters, The Met's prestigious branch of Medieval art located in Manhattan's scenic Fort Tryon Park. Paid parking is available in The Museum Garage.
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From your Guide: Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history, and a regular contributor to About Art History. You may read all of his Special Exhibition and Catalogue Reviews here.
Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) joins some 100 other paintings by American artists such as James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and Winslow Homer (1836-1910) in Americans in Paris, 1860-1900. The exhibition explores why these painters and 32 others were drawn to Paris, then the art world's capital, in the last four decades of the Nineteenth Century and how they reacted to the artistic innovations they witnessed while there.
"Americans in Paris, 1860-1900" is on view from October 24, 2006 to January 28, 2007 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82 Street, New York, NY 10028-0198 (Telephone: 212-535-7710; Website). The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM and Friday and Saturday from 9:30 AM to 9:00 PM. SUGGESTED admission is $20.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens (65 years of age and older) and $10.00 for students. This includes same-day admission to The Cloisters, The Met's prestigious branch of Medieval art located in Manhattan's scenic Fort Tryon Park. Paid parking is available in The Museum Garage.
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From your Guide: Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history, and a regular contributor to About Art History. You may read all of his Special Exhibition and Catalogue Reviews here.