"An Unaccepted Lady": Identity Representation and the Salon Predicament of Sargent's Madame X
Abstract
of a shoulder strap; however, contemporary scholarship often views it as Sargent's deliberate challenge to the traditional portrait genre and
his attempt to break free from the constraints of bourgeois culture. This article argues that interpreting this event through a single perspective
risks overlooking the role of portraiture in shaping social identity within 19th-century French high society. For bourgeois women, portraiture
did not merely depict physical appearance but also served to safeguard a "proper" social image through appearance, attire, and posture. Before being painted, Madame Gaute already enjoyed considerable social visibility—a fact that distinguishes *Mrs.X* from anonymous models
or allegorical female figures. In this work, Sargent preserved her identity, yet he undermined the perceived stability of that identity through
the depiction of her shoulder strap, skin tone, and posture. When the painting was presented at the Salon, a shift in the way it was viewed
transformed this instability into public controversy surrounding high-class women. The subsequent modification of the shoulder strap and the
renaming of the work further illustrate that this controversy not only influenced the painting's social reception but also altered the relationship
between the artwork and the model's actual identity.
Keywords
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/rcha.v4i8.10180
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