Architecture

Woodside artist and architect Jim Caldwell talks about John Singer Sargent and the scandal of Madame X

by Linda Hubbard Gulker on June 27, 2020

Artist and architect Jim Caldwell, who lives in Woodside, is giving a Pacific Art League (PAL) talk “John Singer Sargent and the scandal of Madame X” on Tuesday, June 30 at 5:00 pm via Zoom. The cost is $10, which supports PAL programs. Register online.

John Singer Sargent is considered by many to be Art History’s most skillful and successful portraitist.

He was born in Florence to American expatriates in 1856. As a young man, his fame and reputation quickly grew upon his extraordinary skill as a portraitist, but he was also supremely talented as a landscape painter, a watercolorist, and a muralist.

Some say that his best portrait is the one he did of Amelie Gautreau (Madame X), which he painted when he was only 27. It was a Succes de Scandale in the 1884 Paris Salon because it was so daring in its décolletage, its unusual profile, and one other feature you will have to join us to discover.

Jim will talk about John Singer Sargent’s brilliant career and his infamous portrait of Madame X. The presentation includes over 50 images of his portraits, watercolors, drawings and murals.

InMenlo file photo (c) 2014

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