Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast
primary
John Singer Sargent
(Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
subject
Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau
(American, 1859 - 1915)
Date1882-1883
Place MadeFrance, Europe
MediumOil on panel
Dimensions32 x 41 cm (12 5/8 x 16 1/8 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP3w41
eMuseum ID717544
EmbARK ObjectID10979
TMS Source ID237
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryMadame Pierre Gautreau, born Virginie Avegno (1859–1915), was Madame X, the statuesque sitter in Sargent’s most notorious portrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Critics considered the portrait in scandalously bad taste, and the sitter’s mother asked Sargent to withdraw the painting from the Salon of 1884, which he refused to do. This much smaller and more intimate painting was done a year earlier, and was given by Sargent to Madame Gautreau’s mother. By purchasing this painting at the end of her life, Mrs. Gardner acquired an important document of Sargent’s career, and also a slice of her own history, since she had wanted her portrait by Sargent to rival the sensuous impact of the infamous Madame X.
Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 203.
Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 203.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 37.
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 6.
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 19 (6 Jan. 1963), p. 2.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 221-22.
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits. Complete Paintings, Volume I (New Haven and London, 1998), pp. 117-18, no. 116. (as about 1883)
Susan Sidlauskas. "Painting Skin." American Art (Fall 2001), pp. 17, 25, fig. 15.
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, (Boston, 2003), p. 203. (as 1882-1883)
Emily Eells and Stephen Coon. "Sargent and Proust: An Elusive Mouvance." Visual Culture in Britain (March 2018), pp. 53-54, fig. 2.
Diana Seave Greenwald and Erica Hirshler, "The Story Behind John Singer Sargent's Portait of Isabella Stewart Gardner," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 November 2023, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/story-behind-john-singer-sargents-portrait-isabella-stewart-gardner
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 6.
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 19 (6 Jan. 1963), p. 2.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 221-22.
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits. Complete Paintings, Volume I (New Haven and London, 1998), pp. 117-18, no. 116. (as about 1883)
Susan Sidlauskas. "Painting Skin." American Art (Fall 2001), pp. 17, 25, fig. 15.
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, (Boston, 2003), p. 203. (as 1882-1883)
Emily Eells and Stephen Coon. "Sargent and Proust: An Elusive Mouvance." Visual Culture in Britain (March 2018), pp. 53-54, fig. 2.
Diana Seave Greenwald and Erica Hirshler, "The Story Behind John Singer Sargent's Portait of Isabella Stewart Gardner," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 November 2023, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/story-behind-john-singer-sargents-portrait-isabella-stewart-gardner
MarksNotesInscribed and signed (upper right): à Me [sic] Avegno témoignage d'amitié / John S. Sargent
ProvenanceNotes
John Singer Sargent dedicated this painting to the sitter's mother, Madame Anatole Avegno (1818–1887).
At a later unknown date it was acquired by Dr. Samuel Pozzi (1846–1918), French surgeon and gynecologist and reputedly the sitter's lover.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner at the auction of Pozzi's collection, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 23-24 June 1919, lot 23 for 15,651 francs through her agent Fernand Robert.
At a later unknown date it was acquired by Dr. Samuel Pozzi (1846–1918), French surgeon and gynecologist and reputedly the sitter's lover.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner at the auction of Pozzi's collection, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 23-24 June 1919, lot 23 for 15,651 francs through her agent Fernand Robert.
