Aldo Severi, Madame X, 1925

Although there is little known about Aldo Severi, we do know he was an Italian artists known for creating portraits of women as there are similar rendered paintings credited to Severi on the art market.

This painting is only known by the obscure title “Madame X” which may have been given by the artist but most likely was given later by an art dealer– a common practice in the art world. “Madame X” may be a nod to the famous John Singer Sargent painting “Madame X” found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. Although Sargent’s sitter is not unknown—and in fact shows the young socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau—the identity of our “Madame X” is unknown. From her fashionable black gown and feathered hat, we may assume she was someone with a high social status. Yet her clothing could have been exaggerated or altered through artist license or by her or the patron’s request as it was common to paint someone as they wanted to appear (more sophisticated, beautiful or wealthy based on cultural and gender norms at the time) rather than how they really looked.

Additionally, the way the painting was created suggests an amateur artist as areas around the canvas; for example, her ankles and feet are naïve in painting technique. An artist with more experience, skill, and training may have positioned her feet in a different manner or given them more definition through color, line, shape to give them the illusion of true ankles and less blocky appearance. With this observation, another assumption can be made: the painting’s cost. Typically an artist starting off in their career or one with less skill would charge less than an artist with traditional schooling and higher skill. This may suggest the sitter and/patron was someone not of the upper class but from the middle working class.