Madame X

John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, a celebrated American beauty living in Paris, caused a scandal at the Salon of 1884 and became the most famous image of the artist’s career. Sargent reworked the falling strap of the gown after the exhibition, and the portrait remained in his studio unsold for decades before the Met acquired it in 1916.