Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X

by Deborah Davis

Read this instead of working on my paper today, which puts me unfortunately even more behind. But it was a rainy day, and it was a good book. Actually, I really have no excuse except that I am a procrastinator. To my detriment, unfortunately. And to put the icing on the cake, I'm even writing about this book now, instead of working on aforementioned paper, even now.

This book is the story of a painter, one of his subject and paintings. Non-fiction, sort of art history + biography. It's also about Paris in the last half of the 19th century. I like it because it's a very thorough book on a very small subject. Everything in its context.

"One typically southern gothic story that circulated about Julie was that, on her wedding day, having been forced to abandon the man she loved to marry an older French aristocrat, she committed suicide by hurling herself against a giant oak tree on the plantation. The legend further claimed that Julie's wedding-gowned ghost haunted the property mourning her lost love. With stories like this, Julie remained in the shadows of her family for so many years that most people believed she was dead."

"Artists were eager to paint or sculpt Amelie. They bombarded her with requests, which she refused time and again. She understood that she must choose the creator of her first major portrait with great care, for it would be examined closely by admirers and detractors. Selecting a painter for a portrait ws an important personal decision, as important as wearing flattering clothes or arriving with the proper escort. Paris's wealthy and bourgeois commonly commisioned portraits of themselves, and patronized a select group of artists. Among the many candidates to consider, Amelie would not entrust her image to anyone until she was sure he was capable of creating a masterpiece."