Oh, spectacle

Portraits of Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, most famously painted as John Singer Sargent’s “Madame X” (by Sargent, Gustave Courtois, and Antonio de La Gandara from left to right).

Despite its harsh critical reception as scandalously inappropriate in its original form (one strap of her dress was originally falling from her shoulder — the artist later painted it back in place), Sargent regarded the piece as his finest, saying to the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art upon its sale into the museum’s collection, “I suppose it is the best thing I have ever done.”

The Gandara piece is spectacular as well <3