© Tate
Study of Madame Gautreau
Artist: John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925)
Location: Tate
Date: circa 1884
Materials: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 206.4 x 107.9cm
Gift:
Review number: 488 (1925)
Description:
This unfinished portrait of Madame Gautreau was acquired by a special arrangement whereby Sir J. Duveen acquired the work and presented it to the nation otherwise it would have been sold to the United States. Duveen was a dealer who frequently sold to American collections but was also a great supporter of The Art Fund. Though the sitter is unidentified, the public was in no doubt that it was Virginie Amélie Gautreau a young Parisian socialite born in Louisiana. This portrait created a scandal through its provocative pose and décolletage and the sitter's reputation for flouting conventional values. Sargent became obsessed with her and painted her - in a style much indebted to Velázquez and Manet - without commission.
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