Madame X (Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau)

To capture Gautreau’s "strange, weird, fantastic, curious beauty," Sargent relied on his extensive knowledge of art history as well as on his twenty-five-year-old sitter’s reputation as a self-created work of art. Her twisted posture and the exaggerated pallor of her skin elicited comparisons to sculpture, both historical and contemporary. For some, her lithe elegance evoked Diana, Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt. Gautreau herself amplified this mythology by wearing a diamond crescent hair ornament, which Sargent included in the portrait. The artist’s choice of table, ornamented with Sirens with serpentine tails, was also calculated. The symbolism of the Siren as an attractive yet dangerous temptress must have been an intentional allusion to Gautreau’s reputation.