Madame X speaks

Magazine Antiques, Nov, 2003 by Deborah Davis, Elizabeth Oustinoff

Sargent was determined to complete Amelie's portrait but the pose eluded him. He reworked the canvas many times and made some thirty sketches showing her in various poses--sitting, standing, and even with her back to him. In one water-color she pretends to read a book that lay so precariously on her lap it appears to be falling (cover and Pl. VI). In a pencil drawing she slumps on a sofa, looking like a bored and impatient teenager without any pretense of maturity or hauteur (Fig. 5).

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Even as he was struggling, Sargent was clearly bewitched by Amelie's image. In preparatory oils and watercolors, he used soft colors that made his subject appear dreamy and romantic. One night he dashed off Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast (Pl. VII), depicting a beguiling and seductive woman reaching out playfully to toast her unseen dinner partner. In this painting. Sargent captured her youthful spirit and the complicated charm that so enchanted Parisian society.

Sargent expressed his misgivings about the success of the portrait in letters to his childhood friends, Vernon Lee and Ben del Castillo. To Lee he complained about Amelie's "unattainable beauty and hopeless laziness" (19) and his own struggle to correct the tone of the picture.

Finally, he settled on the all-important pose. Amelie stood next to a small table, her right hand straining to rest on its top while her left hand clutches her skirt and a closed fan. Her body faces the viewer; but her head is turned to feature her exquisite profile. One of her jeweled shoulder straps sits in position: the other has slipped down onto her arm, threatening to expose her breast. It was a daring and unconventional portrait, calculated to arouse the interest of the glitterati who flocked to the annual Salon exhibition of 1884.

Toward the end of the summer, Amelie came upon Sargent as he was writing a letter to Madame Allouard-Jouan (see Pl. V). On the tasteful Les Chenes stationery the Gautreaus provided for their guests, he expressed his desire to move on:

I will probably be in Paris at the end of the week and in any case will come see you at the beginning of next week ....

The weather is exquisite, weak gentle sunshine and leading to suicide. The summer is definitely over and with it, I admit, is my pleasure at being at Les Chenes. I am furious not to be in Florence ....

Madame Gautreau asks to have a word.

His hostess, perhaps not noticing the content of the message on the other side of the page, spontaneously penned a quick message on the back. Her words were friendly, forthright, and extremely revealing of her state of mind regarding the painting.

Dear friend,

Mr. Sargent has made a masterpiece of the portrait, I am anxious to write this to you as I am sure that he will not tell you so.--I was very sorry that you were not able to spend a few days at Parame after leaving Dinard; my husband had put off his trip to Paris to be able to enjoy your company. Really! You know that he and I love you very much and that that is straight from my heart. My love to you and Miss Lili [Madame Allouard-Jouan's daughter].