her name was Virgin ego trunk but scandal turned her forever into madam X and just about did in the career of 28 year old john singer sargent when he exhibited her in 1884 and shocked Paris with her provocative pose the great story behind this painting is that in the original version he accentuated her sensuality even more by dropping the strap off her right shoulder Betsy kornhauser is co curator of a recent exhibition of Sargent portraits at the Metropolitan Museum in New York now in this portrait her strap is not falling off he decided to paint it back and he would keep the painting for the rest of his life until he finally offered it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1907 and at the time he stated that he felt it was his finest work that's saying something for an artist who at 23 dazzled Paris with this portrait of his teacher and at 24 this and at 25 this a huge portrait of a playboy Paris gynecologist considered a masterpiece Sargent is born in 1856 in Florence Italy to American parents and he spends his entire childhood growing up in Europe Stephane heard Ric is another of the Met show's curators so he grows up in a really kind of cultured world exposed to many different cities towns museums he grows up to be fluent in English Spanish French Italian and he speaks German he's a very talented musician in his own right playing the piano think Gilded Age that glittering era of sophistication and new money at the end of the 19th century John Singer Sargent painted and lived it he cultivated commissions from its rich and became famous for his luscious flattering society portraits which is exactly what critics often held against him for a very long time he was defined by his commissioned works and he was defined by the people that he painted I think that was very unfair his reputation according to kornhauser is undergoing a radical reevaluation John Singer Sargent beyond being the most talented and celebrated portrait painter of his day I think looking back in time we could say that he was one of the greatest artists of all time the evidence his much more intimate paintings of people within his own circle many of them provocative or famous cultural figures so with friends and fellow artists writers painters he didn't need to flatter exactly exactly he could go deeper pull out really profound character traits and very often reveal his feelings about the person he loved painting other painters painting singers singing actors acting we have here Carmencita who was a well-known Spanish dancer in the period in this portrait of her he's channeling the old masters but not in this oil sketch he's trying to capture her in motion as Sargent saw her performing in a New York City Music Hall compare it to this 1894 Thomas Edison film at the time sergeant style was considered daring unconventional especially his paintings of friends such as Robert Louis Stevenson the author of Treasure Island and the French impressionist Claude Monet inside and outside he's seated on his artist stool holding on a pallet the actual picture Monet was working on is now in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston the detail that Sargent presents here has become of great significance because it's a pure impressionist palette and this was precisely what Sargent was attempting to absorb and embrace at this time he did so extravagantly especially once he moved to Britain to recover from the madam X fiasco and over time the go-to portrait painter of his day loses interest in the grand paintings that made his name preferring people in informal settings and watercolors regarded as some of the finest ever painted in 1907 he makes a formal declaration I'm not painting any more portraits occasionally he gets lured out of that for a very prominent commission but he has got other interests in this period and he's going to kind of painting what he wants to paint in this period and yes 90 years after his death in 1925 it is those extraordinary telling portraits that are treasured all over the world the strange thing is John Singer Sargent almost never painted himself his only self-portraits were commissioned by others and revealed nothing about him