At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Sargent and Paris charts John Singer Sargent’s formative decade in the French capital, culminating in his controversial 1884 masterpiece Madame X. The show features around 100 works, including preparatory sketches, landscapes, and portraits, offering context to Sargent’s daring stylistic evolution. It’s a rare opportunity to see Madame X—one of the Met’s most celebrated paintings—alongside other key works that explore Sargent’s influences, his relationship with society portraiture, and his artistic risks during a period when he was still defining his voice.
The exhibition also takes a closer look at Virginie Gautreau, the American-born Parisian socialite who posed for Madame X. Once maligned for her appearance in the painting, Gautreau is recontextualized through period reviews and satirical cartoons, revealing the class and gender biases that shaped her reception. Curator Stephanie L. Herdrich aims to correct some long-standing myths, such as the rumor of an affair between Gautreau and Dr. Samuel-Jean Pozzi, another of Sargent’s sitters. The exhibition runs through August 3 and will travel to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris later this year—the first time Madame X will be exhibited in France in more than four decades.
In case you are headed across the pond soon, we also recommend Orizzonti/Rosso [Horizons/Red] in Rome, featuring 30 contemporary artworks and 50 iconic Valentino dresses spanning nearly five decades and David Hockney, 25 on view at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris through August 31.
