1943.316: Madame Gautreau (Madame X)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1943.316

People

John Singer Sargent, American (Florence, Italy 1856 - 1925 London, England)

Title

Madame Gautreau (Madame X)

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1883

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/307929

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Watercolor and graphite on white wove paper

Dimensions

35.5 x 25.2 cm (14 x 9 15/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Madame Ernest Duez; Sortais, Paris; M. Knoedler and Co., New York; purchased from them by Grenville L. Winthrop through Martin Birnbaum, 1933; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.316

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• [Reproduction only], Bulletin of the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (Columbus, OH, October 1933)., repr. on cover
• Martin Birnbaum, John Singer Sargent, January 12, 1856-April 15, 1925: A Conversation, William E. Rudge's Sons (New York, NY, 1941), p. 62, repr.
• Doreen Bolger Burke, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume III: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1846 and 1864, ed. Kathleen Luhrs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press (New York, 1980), pp. 229, 232
• John Singer Sargent, His Own Work, exh. cat., Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc. (New York, NY, 1980), in checklist, unpaginated
• Annette Blaugrund, "'Sunshine Captured': The Development and Dispersement of Sargent's Watercolors", exh. cat., ed. Patricia Hills, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY, 1986), p. 215
• Heather McPherson, Fin-de-Siècle Faces: Portraiture in the Age of Proust, Visual Arts Gallery (Birmingham, AL, 1988), fig. 22
• Trevor J. Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1994), pp. 51; repr. in color, p. 50
• Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent, exh. cat., Tate Gallery Publishing Limited (London, England, 1998), p. 101, under no. 26
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1998), pp. 113 - 118, repr. in color p. 118, fig. 117
• Carl Little, The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA, 1998), repr. in color, p. 113
• Michael Kilian, "It's the Summer of Sargent in Boston", Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL, August 1, 1999), repr.
• Christine Temin, "Sargent Season", The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine (Boston, MA, June 27, 1999), ill. on cover, p. 2
• Ken Gewertz, "Sargent: Portrait of the Artist in his Workshop", Harvard University Gazette (June 10, 1999), pp. 31, ill. p. 31
• Shawn Hill, "Sargent's Sketchy Characters", Bay Windows (Boston, MA, June 17, 1999), reproduced in b/w, Arts section, p. 9
• Susan Sidlauskas, "Painting Skin: John Singer Sargent's 'Madame X'", American Art (Autumn 2001), vol. 15, issue 3, pp. 9-33, pp. 15, 17, fig. 13
• Deborah Davis and Elizabeth Oustinoff, "Madame X Speaks", The Magazine Antiques (November 2003), CLXIV, no. 5, pp. 116-125, pl. VI, detail on cover
• Deborah Davis, Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin (New York, 2003), repr. (color) between pp. 152 and 153
• Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 301, cat. no. 317, reproduced in color, p. 301
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2012), p. 98 (note 6)
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1908-1913, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2014), p. 103 n. 6
• Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, Sargent: The Watercolors, exh. cat., Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, 2017), pp. 16-17, repr. p. 17 as fig. 4
• Giulio Dalvit, Aimee Ng, and Xavier F. Salomon, The Eveillard Gift, exh. cat., The Frick Collection and Paul Holberton Publishing (New York, 2022), pp. 159-160, repr. p. 159 as fig. 82
• Paul Fisher, The Grand Affair: John Singer Sargent in His World, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, 2022), p. 159, fig. 13
• Murray Whyte, "A Century of Watercolors at Harvard Display the Form's Unruly Pleasures", Boston Globe (Boston, July 2, 2023), p. N4
• Brian T. Allen, "Harvard's Fogg Museum Comes Back to Life with a Glorious Watercolor Show", National Review (August 10, 2023), discussed and repr.
• Joachim Homann, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, and Miriam Stewart, ed., American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2023), pp. 17-18, repr. as fig. 5 on p. 18

Exhibition History

• Exhibition of Water Colors by John Singer Sargent, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, 10/01/1933 - 10/31/1933
• Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketches, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/10/1999 - 09/26/1999
• American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/20/2023 - 08/13/2023

Verification Level