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Virginie
Avegno (1859–1915) was born in Louisiana, the daughter of Major
Anatole Avegno of New Orleans, a gentleman whose family had emigrated
from Camogli, Italy, and Marie Virginie de Ternant of Parlange Plantation,
Louisiana. After Major Avegno died of wounds suffered at the Battle
of Shiloh, Mrs. Avegno took her daughters to Paris. There Virginie
became a celebrated beauty and married a Parisian banker, Pierre Gautreau.
Sargent probably met her in 1881. In 1882, he wrote, "I have a great
desire to paint her portrait and have reason to think she would allow
it and is waiting for someone to propose this homage to her beauty."
He worked on the portrait in the Gautreaus' summer home in Brittany
in 1883 and had difficulty finding both a suitable pose and perspective.
Numerous studies show different attempts at the composition. The exhibition
of the portrait at the Paris Salon of 1884 and its reception by the
public and press—who were scandalized by the notoriety of the
subject, her revealing décolletage, and the lavender coloring
of her skin—marked the culmination of the artist's Parisian career.
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