John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925) was one of the most famous American artists of his generation and certainly one of the greatest painters of the 19th and early 20th century.

His Portrait of Madame X is sometimes called the Mona Lisa of the American art world. Though well known there, Sargent was also famous in the United Kingdom, where he spent most of his career.

In France, however, his name and work remain largely unknown, a situation that the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay hopes to change.