Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau

Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau (née Avegno; 29 January 1859 – 25 July 1915) was an American-born Parisian socialite, who gained notoriety as the subject of John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame X.

Early life and education Gautreau was born Virginie Amélie of French Creole ancestry, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 29 January 1859. Her parents were Anatole Placide Avegno, who was French Creole, and Marie Virginie de Ternant, who was French. Virginie had a younger sister, Valentine Marie, who was born in 1861 and died on March 11, 1866 from yellow fever. Her father also died during the American Civil War in 1862. Her sister and father were both buried in the Saint Louis Cemetery. Gautreau was named after her grandmother Virginie de Ternant, but throughout her life she went by her middle name Amélie. In 1867, when Virginie was eight years old, she moved with her widowed mother back to France. Her education was funded by her uncle and she attended a convent school. When she was introduced to Parisian high society, she was praised for her beauty. Gautreau chose streamlined dresses that enhanced her hourglass figure. Newspapers at the time like L'Événement and Le Figaro often commented on her fashion choices.

While Gautreau's pale and powdered skin was received well in real life, critics believed the depiction of her skin within the painting made her appear sickly. The critic Ralph Curtis wrote he “was disappointed by the color, she looks decomposed. All the women jeer 'Ah Voila "la belle": Oh quel horror.'" Gautreau commissioned both paintings. In tonality of colors, privacy of her face, and style of her dress, La Gándara's was more conservative than Sargent's painting.

Death Gautreau died in Paris on 25 July 1915. She was buried in the Gautreau family crypt at their Château des Chênes in Saint-Malo, Brittany. Her will included two men, Victor-Amédée Callaux and Henri Favalelli, which came as a surprise because they were not known by her family.

Representation in other media Gautreau's and Sargent's intertwined stories are the subject of Strapless (2004) by Deborah Davis. Gautreau is also the subject of I Am Madame X: A Novel (2004) by Gioia Diliberto.