After Sargent: Madame X
Her bare shoulders were the scandal of 1884. This time the scandal moves to the arms.
John Singer Sargent · 1883–84 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The original
John Singer Sargent, Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883–84, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Wikipedia
Monica's drawing
Baroque sleeve: acanthus, flaming heart, peony · Monica, Dark Autumn Studio
On skin
AI visualisation of a real design. Not a photograph of a tattoo.
The painting
John Singer Sargent painted Madame X, the Paris society beauty Virginie Gautreau, in 1883 and 1884. At the Salon of 1884 the right strap of her dress was painted slipped off the shoulder, and Paris was outraged. Sargent repainted the strap, kept the picture in his studio for thirty years and finally sold it to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where it hangs today. He called it the best thing he had done. The pose is what carries it: the profile turned away, the hand braced on the table, the skin almost white against the black.
The design
Monica's baroque sleeve, acanthus scrollwork around a flaming heart with a peony below, here as three-quarter sleeves on both arms. This is the one entry where the design was set directly onto the painting instead of a photographed scene.
Why this pairing
The dress was designed to show skin, and the skin was the problem. A hundred and forty years later we cover the arms in ornament and leave the shoulders exactly as Sargent repainted them. The strap stays up.
