Strapless

by Deborah Davis

  236 “I suppose it is”: Quoted ibid., p. 328.

  TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

  237 England, Sargent’s adopted home . . . “not one”: Charteris, John Sargent, p. 220.

  238 Upholding the Sargent family tradition: Olson, John Singer Sargent, p. 244.

  239 He was interested . . . “have the chance”: Ibid., p. 257.

  240 His memorial service: William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work (Boston: Little, Brown, 1925), p. 102.

  240 “The man, indeed,” “a figure in modern art”: Quoted ibid., p. 107.

  241 Already some three months after: Charteris, John Sargent, p. 223.

  242 “That Sargent was taken”: Quoted in Olson, John Singer Sargent, p. 236.

  243 Jacques Pozzi was a beautiful baby: Laurence Joseph, Catherine Pozzi: Une Robe Couleur du Temps (Paris: Éditions de la Différence, 1988), p. 12.

  243 While his personal life: Vanderpooten offers a detailed examination of Pozzi’s life in Samuel Pozzi.

  244 The circle had very strict rules: Misia and the Muses: The Memoirs of Misia Sert (New York: John Day, 1953), pp. 21-22.

  245 and who had politely refused: Jean-Yves Tadié, Marcel Proust: A Life, trans. Euan Cameron (New York: Viking, 2000), p. 622.

  246 At the last minute: Vanderpooten, Samuel Pozzi, p. 517.

  247 In the 1920s, her sister Valerie . . . “I cannot consent”: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, p. 127.

  248 Gautier, the ultimate fan: Richardson, Judith Gautier, p. 222.

  249 When Sargent invited ... “a journey like this”: Print Collector’s Quarterly, 12 (February 1926), pp. 34-35, 38.

  249 Following the lead: Armstrong Fine Art, “Albert Belleroche.” www.armstrongfineart.com/Belleroche-bio.P.htm.

  250 “no one else has succeeded”: Quoted ibid.

  250 Lily went on: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, p. 170.

  252 In the early 1950s: For a comprehensive study of Sargent’s resurgence in popularity, see H. Barbara Weinberg, “John Singer Sargent: Reputation Redivivus,” Arts Magazine, 54 (March 1980), pp. 104-109.

  253 “Oh God, I wish”: Quoted in Trevor J. Fairbrother, “Warhol Meets Sargent at Whitney,” Arts Magazine, 61 (February 1987), pp. 65-67.

  253 “hot stuff again”: Quoted in Ruth La Perla, “Preserved in Oil,” The New York Times, November 7, 1999.

  254 Fairbrother argues: Trevor Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1994), p. 8.

  255 “I do not judge”: Quoted in Charteris, John Sargent, p. 107.

  AFTERWORD

  257 In spite of all this attention . . . “repainted one part”: Fairbrother, “The Shock of John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame Gautreau,’” pp. 90-97.

  258 Subsequently, Fairbrother turned: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, p. 115.

  259 Curators at the Metropolitan realized: Suzanne Smeaton of Eli Wilner & Company called my attention to the story of the frame, which is discussed in detail in Carrie Rebora Barratt, “American Frames in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” in Eli Wilner, ed., The Gilded Edge (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000), p. 156.

  260 The face that launched a thousand loan requests: Marc Simpson’s introductory remarks for a Sotheby’s New York lecture series on the artist, May 1997.

  260 If Madame X were on the market: I am grateful to Warren Adelson for his invaluable observations on this subject.

  262 Today, Madame X shows some signs: Ridge and Townsend, “How Sargent Made It Look Easy.”

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS

  Contract de Mariage entre M. Pierre-Louis Gautreau et Mademoiselle Avegno. Paris, M. Deves, notary, 1878.

  Succession of Mrs. Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau #2571. Parish of Pointe Coupee, Louisiana, 21st Judicial District Court, October 6, 1916.

  Journal of Louise La Chambre Gautreau. Archives Municipales de Saint-Malo, France, n.d.

  ARTICLES/PERIODICALS

  Armstrong Fine Art. “Albert Belleroche.” www.armstrongfineart.com/Belleroche-bio.P.htm.

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  “Continental Books and Manuscripts,” Sotheby’s, June 2002, pp. 68-69. de Berardinis, Robert. “‘Madame X’: Virginie Amélie ‘Mimi’ Avegno (Mme. Gautreau) and a Family Note to Art History,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly, 90, no. 1 (March 2002), p. 65.

  L’Événement, May 1 and May 19, 1884.

  Fairbrother, Trevor J. “The Shock of John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame Gautreau,’” Arts Magazine, 55 ( January 1981), pp. 90-97.

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  INDEX

  Page numbers in italics indicate black-and-white illustrations.

  Abbey, Edwin Austin