Madame X

Sargent painted the American-born Parisian beauty Virginie Gautreau in strict profile, her lavender-powdered skin glowing against a plain dark ground, one jeweled strap originally slipping from her shoulder. He meant the portrait to make his name at the 1884 Paris Salon; instead its cool sensuality scandalized viewers, her family demanded it be withdrawn, and Sargent repainted the fallen strap before soon leaving for London. He kept the canvas for decades, calling it the best thing he had ever done, a whole figure carried by one silhouetted line.