Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau

Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau
John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1884, oil on canvas, 234.95 x 109.86 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Born	Virginie Amélie Avegno (1859-01-29)29 January 1859 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	25 July 1915(1915-07-25) (aged 56) Cannes, France
Nationality	American
Known for	Subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Portrait of Madame X
Spouse(s)	Pierre Gautreau

Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau (née Avegno, 29 January 1859 – 25 July 1915) was born in New Orleans but grew up from the age of eight in France, where she became a Parisian socialite known for her beauty. She occasionally posed as a model for notable artists. She is most widely known as the subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Portrait of Madame X (1884). It created a social scandal when shown at the Paris Salon.

Of European Creole ancestry, Virginie was taken at the age of eight by her widowed mother to France in 1867 following the American Civil War. She was educated in Paris and married Pierre Gautreau, a wealthy businessman.

Gautreau was born Virginie Amélie Avegno in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 29 January 1859, the daughter of Anatole Placide Avegno (3 July 1835 – 7 April 1862) and Marie Virginie de Ternant of Parlange Plantation, a descendant of French nobility. She had a sister, Valentine Marie, who died as a young child of yellow fever. Their parents were white Creoles; their father Anatole was the son of Philippe Avegno (originally Italian) and Catherine Genois.

Her father Anatole Avegno served as a major in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War; he died in 1862 in the Battle of Shiloh. He was the commander of the Avegno Zouaves of New Orleans, a cosmopolitan battalion which had soldiers from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds including French, Spanish, Mexican, Irish, Italian, Chinese, German, Dutch, and Filipino.

In 1867, when Virginia was eight years old, her widowed mother moved with her to France. The girl was educated in Paris and introduced to high French society.