Sargent and Paris

Although he’s usually thought of as an American artist, John Singer Sargent was born in Florence, honed his craft in Paris and died in London. This exhibition at the Met presents his early work made in France, where he arrived as a student in the art-historically significant year of 1874 and lived until the mid 1880s (27 April–3 August). Some 100 paintings, drawings and watercolours are on display, including Madame X (1883–84), Sargent’s portrait of the socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau. The painting drew so much scorn at the Paris Salon of 1884 – largely for the dress strap that was falling off Avegno’s shoulder but also for its subject’s pallor – that it probably prompted the painter’s move to London. Sargent declared it the best thing he’d ever done, though he later repainted it with the offending strap placed securely on Avegno’s shoulder. The Met has owned the painting for more than a century and has made it the centrepiece of this exhibition, which travels to the Musée d’Orsay later this year.

Find out more from the Met’s website.
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The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882), John Singer Sargent. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

An Out-of-Doors Study (Paul Helleu Sketching with his Wife) (1889), John Singer Sargent. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York

Madame X (1883–84), John Singer Sargent. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York