Featured Books: I am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto & Strapless by Deborah Davis

What began as an intriguing art novel recommendation from a friend turned quickly into a two book odyssey, exploring the life and history of the famed “Madame X” and her enigmatic portraitist, John Singer Sargent. I Am Madame X: A Novel by Gioia Diliberto and Strapless by Deborah Davis, both written in 2003, together offer a global perspective on both the painter and the subject, each book complementing the other. Whether you are an avid art historian or a pleasure reader looking for your next novel, this literary duo will undoubtedly intrigue you.

I Am Madame X: A Novel is a work of historical fiction, based loosely on the life of Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, otherwise known as “Madame X,” the infamous society matron and subject of Sargent’s sexually-charged 1884 Parisian Salon entry. Hanging in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1915, Madame Gautreau’s mysterious identity as the painting’s subject was only recently brought to light. As a journalist and biographer, Dilib…