Strapless is a story about John Singer Sargent’s famous
portrait of socialite, Amelie Gautreau. While it provides biographical
background on these two figures, its main focus is on the years these two US
expatriates lived in Paris and collaborated on a work intended to increase the
cachet of both individuals. The “Madame X” portrait, which currently hangs in
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, became the subject of scandal when
exhibited at the 1884 Paris Salon. While there was wide criticism of the
sitter’s position, her gown and Sargent’s technique, the foremost complaint
revolved around the sexual suggestiveness of the model’s fallen right shoulder
strap.
Davis begins with Gautreau’s family (the Avegnos) in the New
Orleans area. Like most slave-owners of the time, they had an estate in the city
and a plantation on the Louisiana agricultural lands. While the family owned
over 100 slaves, there is only one reference to them: “tending to the animals
and the crops were 147 slaves, watched by an overseer” (Davis, p.13). It is
shocking that a book published in 2004, (one that details shopping in Paris
over four pages), dedicates only one sentence the lives of those who were owned
and mistreated by the Avegnos. Information about these particular slaves would
not have been difficult to exhume from the historic record. Family
correspondence, records of punishments or escapes, oral history of former
slaves, archaeological excavations of slave quarters on family property,
artifacts (like whips, torture devices, manacles), all of these methods were
available to the historian. But Davis, in a pattern typical throughout the
book, avoids topics of human rights, politics or suffering. The majority of the
book concerns Belle Epoch Paris between 1870 and 1900. Remaining consistent
with her evasion of the slavery issue, this author is able to talk about
Parisian history without mentioning the primary culture clash between
traditionalist nationalists and cosmopolitan modernists; an issue that divided
French society among all classes, including that of her subjects. She mentions
Alfred Dreyfus as a patient of the doctor who introduced Sargent and Gautreau,
but ignores the Dreyfus Affair that was so central to that culture clash. She
spends three pages on the presence and musical significance of Richard Wagner
in society, without any reference to his influential anti-semitism. To indicate
that Ms. Davis is not very political is like saying ISIS is a tad impertinent.
Of course, this is a story about Parisian High Society’s
horror regarding a painting transgression of proper mores. While the author may
exhibit deficits of conscience, anyone picking-up this book and expecting to
read riveting social commentary is not paying attention. It is a book one reads
as a break from worldly concerns; much like the reasons why someone would take
time-out in an art museum to admire Sargent portraits in the first place. This
does not excuse lapses in historical content or social conscience, but it does
explain it.
While Davis exhibits little political awareness, she does
show a touching affection for Sargent and Gautreau, as well as a concern for
the trajectory of their lives before and after the scandal of 1884. She tells a
good story. One empathizes with the rise of these two outsiders and their
dramatic fall; then watches them intrepidly dust themselves off and struggle to
revive their reputations. It’s a real life personal drama with all the
importance of a fallen strap.
Davis, Deborah. Strapless. John Singer Sargent and the
Fall of Madame X. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2004.
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