She had a daughter named Louise Gautreau (1879–1911). She married Pierre Gautreau, a French banker and shipping magnate. Pozzi (whom he had painted in a papal-red robe) to introduce him to Virginie, which the doctor did, resulting in Sargent's being invited to the Gautreaus' Brittany chateau, Les Chênes, where Sargent produced some 30 studies of her in pencil, watercolor and oil. Sargent, anxious to popularize himself by capitalizing on Virginie's notoriety, asked Dr. Pozzi at Home, had been painted by the young aspiring John Singer Sargent, a former pupil of French master Carolus Duran.

One of her lovers was Samuel Jean Pozzi, a gynecologist and art collector. She also attracted much amorous attention that she did not discourage, and her extramarital affairs were so well known that they became the subject of tabloid scandal sheets and gossip handbills. She attracted much admiration due to her elegance and style. She was known to use lavender-colored face and body powder to enhance her complexion, to dye her hair with henna, and to color her eyebrows. Virginie Avegno became one of Paris's conspicuous beauties, as she was a pale-skinned brunette with fine, cameo-like features and an hourglass figure. The girl was educated in Paris and introduced to French high society.Īntonio de La Gándara, Madame Pierre Gautreau, 1898 In 1867, when Virginie was eight years old, her widowed mother moved with her to France. 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. 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.

Their parents were white Creoles their father Anatole was the son of Philippe Avegno (originally Italian) and Catherine Genois. She had a sister, Valentine Marie, who died as a young child of yellow fever. Her grandmother was Virginie de Ternant, founder of the plantation Louisiana senator and judge Charles Parlange was her maternal uncle. Gautreau was born Virginie Amélie of European Creole ancestry, 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. The suggestion of indiscreet posing in a revealing costume provoked a storm of outrage. Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau (née Avegno 29 January 1859 – 25 July 1915) was an American-born Parisian socialite, who gained notoriety as the subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Portrait of Madame X. Subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Portrait of Madame X

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