Focus on this artwork and discuss the Background.
After the scandal caused by Sargent’s Portrait of Madame X at the Paris Salon of 1884, the artist lost much of his French clientele and relocated to England in 1886 in search of new commissions. Sargent’s Portrait of Mrs. Cecil Wade was his first major project after the 1884 Salon and formally retreats from many of the controversial aspects of Madame X.
Mrs. Cecil Wade (née Frances Mackay Frew; June 17, 1863 – December 30, 1908) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and married London stockbroker Cecil Lowry Wade (1857 – 1908) in 1883. She was 23 years old when she sat for Sargent in her London home, wearing the white satin gown she wore to be presented before Queen Victoria.
Portrait of Madame X Paris Salon Glasgow Queen Victoria