Madame Virginie Amélie Gautreau was well-known in Paris for being the “It” girl at the time. Pozzi – Dr Pozzi, just happened to be carrying on a very illicit and well-known affair with a lady called Madame Gautreau. It was around this time that he was doing a portrait of a man called Dr. He had had some recent success but needed one high profile project to catapult him to the next level of fame. He was determined to become the premier Portrait painter of the time. John Singer Sargent was an American artist but he had spent a lot of his life in Paris.

So what makes this picture so scandalous?… well, let me tell you a story.