Even before John Singer Sargent painted her portrait, Virginie Gautreau’s reputation for promiscuity and showy self-display made her the subject of vicious Paris gossip. In this remarkable novel, the author tells Virginie’s story, drawing on the sketchy facts of the notorious beauty’s life to recreate her tempestuous personality, the captivating milieu of Belle Epoch Paris, and the struggle between artist and model to control the painting that would change their lives and affect the course of art history.
Madame X, the figure in John Singer Sargent's unforgettable Belle Epoque portrait of a Paris beauty, was Louisiana-born Virginie Gautreau. Anyone who has seen the painting has wondered about her (and wondered why Sargent never attached her real name to the picture), but a scarcity of detail about Gautreau has mostly confounded the curious. Biographer Gioia Diliberto has created a satisfying solution to the problem in this inventive and persuasive imagining of Gautreau's story. Lorna Raver is sensational as the throaty, world-weary Virginie, looking back over her life and loves (there were quite a few), and especially vividly recounting the making of the famous painting, the scandal it caused, and the aftereffects of the celebrity it created. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
Digital Rights Information
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Burn to CD:
Permitted
Transfer to device:
Permitted
Transfer to Apple® device:
Permitted
Public performance:
Not permitted
File-sharing:
Not permitted
Peer-to-peer usage:
Not permitted
All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
This is an Advantage title. While it is available to patrons of your library, it may not be available to all libraries.
This is an Advantage title. While it is available to patrons of some libraries, it may not be available to all libraries. Sign in to see if this is available to patrons of your library.
This is an Advantage title. While it is available to patrons of some libraries, it is not available to patrons of your library at this time.
