Execution
As in his previous entries to the Salon, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and El Jaleo, Sargent chose a canvas of dimensions large enough to ensure notice on the crowded Salon walls. The pose proved to be different from any of those tried in the preliminary works. It necessitated that Gautreau stand with her body facing the artist while her head was turned away, her right arm extended behind her for support, her hand on a low table; the result was to create tension in the neck and arm as well as to emphasize the subject's elegant contours. For painting the artificial tone of Gautreau's pale skin, Sargent used a palette composed of lead white, rose madder, vermilion, viridian, and bone black.
Even when composition had been decided upon and painting started, work progressed slowly. In a letter to a friend Sargent wrote "One day I was dissatisfied with it and dashed a tone of light rose over the former gloomy background... The élancée figure of the model shows to much greater advantage." On September 7, Sargent wrote "still at Paramé, basking in the sunshine of my beautiful model's countenance." By the fall, Sargent's interest in the venture was nearing completion: "The summer is definitely over and with it, I admit, is my pleasure at being at Les Chênes ."
Read more about this topic: Portrait Of Madame X
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