John Singer Sargent, Queer as Folk, people who are nice

[oiran]

koimistress has a discussion here about the ease of looking up and making connections online and uses one of my favorite paintings as an example, but I am reluctant to post my ramblings in her LJ because really I want to talk about John Singer Sargent instead of the ease of finding him online. Not only did he paint the infamous Madame X that caused such a scandal in the Paris Salon of 1884, but several sources indicate that he was also a flaming queer and notorious nailer of Euro ass, Italians in particular. He painted a portrait of one possible boyfriend, who was also an intimate of Oscar Wilde (though how intimate, I do not know) W. Graham Robertson, and did an amazing series of portraits of a rich Jewish family, the Wertheimers, at and around the turn of the century. (A stunningly thorough site, the John Singer Sargent Virtual Gallery is worth your time if you have even the most remote interest in Mr. Sargent's work. To be well-rounded about it, I'll point out that the keeper of the site does not believe he was gay, and I enjoy the gossip but I don't really care one way or the other. I mean, look at the paintings!)

My first visit to New Orleans coincided with a Sargent exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Along with a lavish (and crowded) display of floral arrangements and table settings (which didn't come off nearly as superficial as it sounds), there were the Wertheimer portraits. Of Sargent's work, I was most familiar with reproductions of Mme. Gatreau's portrait(s) and the Phelps portrait, but hadn't been in a room with any Sargents at all, so I really did not know what to expect.

The Wertheimer paintings are of a grand scale, the figures life-size or better, with a richness and depth of texture that make the faces appear flushed with moving blood. A family of dark-haired, pale-skinned beauties, the Wertheimers (especially the women) float toward the viewer, gaslit and low-cut and vividly amused. I fell in love, quite literally, with the long-dead Ena W., (the image, here, doesn't show up, but if you click to "step closer" it pops up) whose elegant throat looks real enough to taste of tuberose and sweat, the velvet across her bosom as plush as anything tactile. I have a catalog from the show, which has surprisingly good reproductions, but I have discovered over the years that seeing the real thing usually makes any reproduction an object of derision or even disgust (the reproduction here is terrible, fwiw).

Back to Madame X. koimistress gives her name as Amelie; I've seen her as Eugenie and Virginie, usually Virginie. It doesn't really matter, though; she means more as a cipher and subject than as a person with a history of her own. Which is odd and sad, but true. Her proud, birdlike profile might be another woman's source of insecurity, remaining hidden behind wings of hair or distracting hats, but Mme. Gatreau knew herself to be a great beauty and powdered herself lavender just in case anyone had a thought of looking elsewhere.

I once spent a fruitless half-hour in Barney's New York trying to get a saleswoman to help me choose a lavender T. LeClerc powder so that I could emulate Sargent's most famous model. It was important to the saleswoman to understand which painting I was talking about for some reason, so I sketched the pose out on a tissue with an eyebrow pencil and the she did, finally, recognize the artwork in question. However, she found my request so peculiar and unnerving that she adamantly discouraged me from buying a $50 tin of powder ("Is this for a costume party or something? No?"). It's possible--and likely, actually--that she thought I was insane and that my check would bounce.

I have a few iconic images that, for better or worse, represent ideal women to me: Madame X., Louise Brooks with her pearls, and the Avedon photo popularly known as Dovima and the Elephants. I'm not talking about their accomplishments or personalities, or even other images of these same women. Just these three pictures.

I do not have Madame X's proud, pointy nose, but I do have hair to be put up and very pale shoulders; I think I see next year's Halloween costume. If I do decide to be Madame X, I shall resist the urge to wear horns anyway.

Well, I asked her not to nicely, but she's defying me. That stinky rhiannonhero went and wrote QaF. As she points out, it's actually Gale/Randy RPS, and thus not QaF, and, in any case, she made me no promises. I wanted to hate it, but I most assuredly did not. It's here: The Contents of his Fridge: Heroin, Mint Juleps, and Benjamin Fucking Franklin. Go tell her you like this one, but not to write any more. Send her subliminal messages about Clark and Lex.

People who are nice and sent me things in mail (e- or snail): siobhan_w, timian, gothphyle, nebt_het, isagel, wunderwesen, princess_bunny, and stone_princess, who is either the future Mrs. Norman Reedus or the future Mrs. Velvetglove.

Comments

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

You and me are mint 2 b. I adore Singer Sargent. Like you have no idea how much. Wow. This was a great post.

Also, thank you for the rec--even if it was quite begrudging. ;)

Can I be a bridesmaid at the nuptuals between you and stoneprincess? Actually, I want to be matron of honor for both parties!!!!!

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the paintings in RL? GodgodGodjustfuckingamazing.

The rec isn't begrudging. I'm just afraid I'll be the only one of my close friends still writing in this fandom...don't leave me!

You could totally be my matron-of-honor. You can wear whatever you want. I'll probably wear a 1930s nightgown. We'll all get our hands hennaed and I'll definitely want red feet like a Biblical whore. Of coruse, Jacyn hasn't agreed to this yet, but I don't see why she'd object.

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

OOoohh. I'm all for the hennaed hands and red feet!! Yes!! As for Jacyn objecting, we'll just over-ride her decision. I'm all for this plan.

I won't leave you! I have unfinished business in SV!

And the paintings? Why yes, I've seen Madame X and others. Fucking gorgeous. Fucking genius.

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Madame X yet. Mr. Glove promises we'll go to NYC in the spring(ish) and visit all the art, after which I am sure I will want to burn 90% of our art books for offering subpar reproductions.

As long as you don't leave permanently, I will try not to be too resentful of your new dalliance.

Jacyn is lucky to have us available to decide her future for her. Less bother for her that way.

[stone-princess.livejournal.com]

Can I be both Mrs. Norman Reedus and Mrs. Velvetglove? Are they mutually exclusive.

In news of utter synchronicity, I dreamt last night that you and I were shopping for pink 1930's nightgowns and got into a fight about a particularly lovely pink one with cream lace. How weird is that?

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

You can absolutely be both. I intend on sticking with Mr. Glove, after all.

Your dream makes me happy. So happy that you can even have the nightgown. I want one of those ice-blue ones with the ecru lace, anyway.

[allpurposegirl.livejournal.com]

JSS is amazing. I became interested in him when I was in high school and was asked to do a sketch of the Phelps painting. Madame X has always been one of my favorites.

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

I love the paintings, and I love the entire society (rich, snobby, full of eccentrics) that hired the portraitists. And he was so prolific! His male nudes are really wonderful, too.

[allpurposegirl.livejournal.com]

The nudes really are but not my faves.

[tamalinn.livejournal.com]

mm... there are a bunch of sargent's paintings at the isabella stewart gardener museum in boston, if you ever get the chance to visit. i love that museum. it's isabella stewart gardener collected artwork, and the display is her collection, in what was once her home. i have prints of a couple of sargent's paintings hanging in my apartment. i really love his work.

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds very cool. Her name is familiar to me, though I'm not sure why; I'm going to have to go look her up.

I have fantasies of doing a NE tour...I haven't seen any major East Coast cities (um, unless you count Orlando, which I most certainly do not!)

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

Orlando? No.

No fair, I wanna be the future Mrs. Velvetglove. Fine. Hurt me. I'll just have to content myself with hitting on you. Oh and instead of sending Clark and Lex thoughts to rhiannonhero, can I instead whine that I can't see the story? No? Okay then.

W. Graham Robertson doesn't sound familiar to me in respects to Oscar Wilde. I'll look around though, I'm curious now. Oscar was my main hobby my junior year in college.

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

Jacyn already had dibs ;)

I'll tell Rhi that she needs to make that post public. It's a good story and deserves a bigger audience.

I'm just taking the info about Robertson from some art texts. It could be total bullshit, or the connection could be tenuous.

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

So can I be like fourth in line then? If everyone else is unable to fulfill their duties as your wife, then I get the position?

Thanks for the link to Rhi's story, I'll read it right now. Especially since I fully believe that Gale and Randy need to get married.

Well they were around at the same time, and in the same circles. Since they were both artists as well as if Robertson was gay, then he probably went to the same house Oscar did for rent boys. It's an interesting idea, how interconnected those guys were. Much like how Hollywood is run now.

I'll look anyway, I'm curious, and if I can come up with a name in common, it'll be something to add t my Oscar obsession.

go read it

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

Per Rhi, it's here, also: http://www.livejournal.com/community/random_rpf/8408.html