These photos were taken by Safari Photography of Providence, RI of our collaborative project supplying costumes and models, hair & makeup for photographer Ron Hagell to transition the shadows and contrasts of John Singer Sargent from canvas to photograph . Mr. Hagell's work is extraordinary and it was a pleasure to work on this project!
Collaboration on Sargent Project with Safari Models and Photographer Ron Hagell at RISDI
Christine Luis, a Safari Model (Providence RI) in black dress I designed for photo exhibit at RISDI of Madame X (or Portrait of Madame X) based upon a portrait painting by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau. The model was an American expatriate who married a French banker, and became notorious in Parisian high society for her beauty and rumored infidelities. She wore lavender powder and prided herself on her appearance. Our model is a contemporary young woman with a strong career and professional modeling portfolio that has model my hats and outfits on many occasions.
Madame X was painted not as a commission, but at the request of Sargent. It is a study in opposition. Sargent shows a woman posing in a black satin dress with jeweled straps, a dress that reveals and hides at the same time. This is the dress I created for the shoot.
The Sargent portrait is characterized by the pale flesh tone of the subject contrasted against a dark colored dress and background. For Sargent buffs here's a bit of history - the scandal resulting from the painting's controversial reception at the Paris Salon of 1884 amounted to the failure of a strategy to build a long-term career as a portrait painter in France, though it may have helped him establish a successful career in Britain and America. I love collaborating with Cathy and Matt from Safari... we always have fun!
Ron Hagell Jr. is a media artist, filmmaker/photographer and senior lecturer in Media Arts at Royal Holloway - University of London in England. He has directed the EMMY nominated documentary Vietnam: Still Fighting and several short experimental narrative films. Ron was, for many years, a producer/director with PBS, the American public TV network, and a manager at Lifetime Television, a New York based cable network.
His current work includes dance films, narrative dramatic works dealing with cinematic time experimentation and expanding his continuing photographic and painting interests into the digital field.
Ron regularly exhibits in London, England and internationally, including an installation using early film for the opening of the Orphan Film Symposium, in the USA. Other works are held in the collections of the Mousonturm (Frankfurt, Germany), the Dance Collection at Lincoln Centre, the New York State Museum, various PBS/CPB stations and the Museum of Native Americans (New York City). His Prairie Winds installation, part of The Vanishing Landscape at the Galt Museum & Archives, was also shown in Maidstone, Kent, UK.
