Madame X

The 1884 Paris Salon version of this painting showed the right shoulder strap fallen, hanging off her arm. The Parisian audience read it as the prelude to her undressing. The portrait destroyed Sargent's Paris career; he moved to London. Years later, before selling the canvas to the Metropolitan Museum in 1916, Sargent painted the strap back into place on her shoulder. The original strap survives in an 1883 study. Now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York @metmuseum