The 2026 Met Gala: Bezoses, Beyoncé, and Blood

When a blockbuster exhibition of the work of John Singer Sargent opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year, one painting was the clear standout. You could see it glowing like a lighthouse from several rooms away: Sargent’s “Madame X,” from 1884, a large-scale portrait of the twenty-five-year-old socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, which caused an uproar when Sargent displayed it at the Paris Salon.