Suzanne Valadon (23 September 18657 April 1938) was a French painter who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at

Bessines-sur-Gartempe Bessines-sur-Gartempe (, literally ''Bessines on Gartempe''; Limousin: ''Becinas'') is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. Geography The river Semme forms part of the commune's north-eastern ...

, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the . She was also the mother of painter

Maurice Utrillo Maurice Utrillo (), born Maurice Valadon; 26 December 1883 – 5 November 1955), was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painte ...

. Valadon spent nearly 40 years of her life as an artist. The subjects of her drawings and paintings, such as '' Joy of Life'' (1911), included mostly female nudes, portraits of women, still lifes, and landscapes. She never attended the academy and was never confined within a set tradition or style of art. Despite not being confined to any tradition, she shocked the artistic world by painting male nudes as well as less idealized images of women in comparison to those of her male counterparts. She was a model for many renowned artists. Among them, Valadon appeared in such paintings as ''

Dance at Bougival ''Dance at Bougival'' ( French: ''La danse à Bougival'') is an 1883 work by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, currently in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Described as "one of the museum's most beloved works", it i ...

'' (1883) and ''

Dance in the City ''Dance in the City'' is a painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The 1883 work is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay. The dancers are model and artist Suzanne Valadon and Renoir's friend Paul Auguste Lhôte. This work, along with ...

'' by

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

(1883), and '' Suzanne Valadon'' (1885) and '' The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon)'' (1887 - 1889) by

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the ...

Early life

Valadon grew up in poverty with her mother, an unmarried

laundress A washerwoman or laundress is a woman who takes in laundry. Both terms are now old-fashioned; equivalent work nowadays is done by a laundry worker in large commercial premises, or a laundrette (laundromat) attendant. Description As evidenc ...

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

. She did not know her father. Known to be quite independent and rebellious, she attended primary school until age eleven when she began working. She had a series of jobs that included working in a milliner's workshop, at a factory making funeral wreaths, selling vegetables, and as a waitress. At the age of 15, she obtained a job in her most desired field: performing in the circus as an acrobat. She was able to work at the circus because of her connection with

Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

and Thèo Wagner, two symbolist painters, who were involved in decorating a circus belonging to Medrano. The circus was visited frequently by artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and

Berthe Morisot Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...

and it is speculated that this was the inspiration for a painting of Valadon by Morisot. A fall from a trapeze that injured her back is what ultimately ended her circus career after one year. It is commonly believed that Valadon taught herself how to draw at the age of nine. In the

quarter of Paris, she pursued her interest in art, first working as a model and a muse for artists, observing and learning their techniques, as she could not afford art lessons herself. She observed and learned from artists, such as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, before becoming a noted and successful painter in her own right.

Model

Valadon began working as a model in 1880 in Montmartre at age 15. She modeled for more than ten years for many different artists including

, Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes,

Théophile Steinlen Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (November 10, 1859 – December 13, 1923), was a Swiss-born French Art Nouveau painter and printmaker. Biography Born in Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-R ...

, Jean-Jacques Henner, and

. She modeled under the name "Maria" before being nicknamed "Suzanne" by Toulouse-Lautrec, after the biblical story of

Susanna and the Elders Susanna (; : "lily"), also called Susanna and the Elders, is a narrative included in the Book of Daniel (as chapter 13) by the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches and Eastern Orthodox Churches. It is one of the additions to Daniel, plac ...

as he felt that she especially preferred modeling for older artists. She was Toulouse-Lautrec's lover for two years, which ended when she attempted suicide in 1888. Valadon learned and furthered her art by observing the techniques of the artists for whom she posed. She was considered a very focused, ambitious, rebellious, determined, self-confident, and passionate woman. In the early 1890s, she befriended

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

, who was impressed by her bold line drawings and fine paintings. He purchased her work and encouraged her. She remained one of his closest friends until his death in 1917. Art historian Heather Dawkins believed that Valadon's experience as a model added depth to her own images of nude women, which tended to be less idealized than the representations of women by the male post-impressionists. Morisot's 1880 drawing of Valadon as a tightrope walker preceded it, but the most recognizable early image of Valadon is in Renoir's ''

'' from 1883, the same year that she posed for ''

''. In 1885, Renoir painted her portrait again as ''Girl Braiding Her Hair''. Another of his portraits of her in 1885, ''Suzanne Valadon'', is of her head and shoulders in profile. Valadon frequented the bars and taverns of Paris with her fellow painters and she was Toulouse-Lautrec's subject in his oil painting ''The Hangover''.

Artist

Valadon was an acclaimed painter of her time, well-respected and championed by contemporaries such as Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. She was admitted to professional associations and her works were admitted to juried exhibitions. She lived a bohemian life with rebellious vision. Valadon's earliest surviving signed and dated work is a

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

from 1883, drawn in

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

and

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

. She produced mostly drawings between 1883 and 1893, and began painting in 1892. Her first models were family members, especially her son, mother, and niece. Valadon began painting full-time in 1896. She painted

still lifes A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

, flowers, and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors. She was, however, best known for her candid female nudes. Her work attracted attention partly because, by painting unidealized nudes, she upset the social norms of the time that were created by male artists. Her earliest known female nude was executed in 1892. In 1895, the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel exhibited a group of twelve etchings by Valadon that show women in various stages of their toilettes. Later, she regularly showed at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris. Valadon was the first woman painter accepted as an exhibitor in the Salon de la Nationale in 1894, which is notable since competition for acceptance was fierce. She exhibited in the Salon d'Automne from 1909, in the Salon des Independants from 1911, and in the Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes during 1933-1938. Notably, Degas was the first person to purchase drawings from her, and he introduced her to other collectors, including Paul Durand-Ruel and

Ambroise Vollard Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was a French art dealer who is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is credited with providing exposure and emotio ...

. Degas also taught her the skill of soft-ground etching. Le lancement du filet

After her marriage to the well-to-do banker Paul Mousis, in 1896 Valadon became a full-time painter. She made a shift from drawing to painting in 1909. Her first large oils for the Salon related to sexual pleasures and they were some of the first examples in modern painting with a man being an object of desire by a woman similar to that idealized treatment of women by male artists. These notable Salon paintings include '' Adam and Eve'' (''Adam et Eve'') (1909), '' Joy of Life'' (''La Joie de vivre'') (1911), and ''

Casting the Net ''Casting the Net'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Suzanne Valadon, executed in 1914. It has the dimensions of 201 by 301 cm. It is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Nancy. History and analysis The painting wa ...

'' (''Lancement du filet'') (1914). In her lifetime, Valadon produced approximately 273 drawings, 478 paintings, and 31 etchings, excluding pieces given away or destroyed. Valadon was well known during her lifetime, especially toward the end of her career, in the 1920s more specifically, as she helped to transform the female nude that depicted expression through a woman's experience. Her works are in the collection of the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

in Paris, the Museum of Grenoble, and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York, among others. Valadon's painting of an acrobat, L' Acrobate ou La Roue, sold in 2017 for £75,000 by Christie's Auction House.

Style

La Poupée abandonnée, par Suzanne Valadon

Valadon was not confined to a specific style, yet both Symbolist and Post-Impressionist aesthetics are clearly demonstrated within her work. She worked primarily with oil paint, oil pencils, pastels, and red chalk; she did not use ink or watercolor because these mediums were too fluid for her preference. Valadon's paintings feature rich colors and bold, open brushwork often featuring firm black lines to define and outline her figures. Valadon's self-portraits, portraits, nudes, landscapes, and still lifes remain detached from trends and contemporaneous aspects of academic art. The subjects of Valadon's paintings often reinvent the old master themes: women bathing, reclining nudes, and interior scenes. She preferred to paint working-class models. Art historian Patricia Mathews suggests that Valadon's working-class status and experience as a model influenced her intimate, familiar observation of these women and their bodies. In this respect she differed from

and Mary Cassatt, who painted mostly women, but "remained well within the bounds of propriety in their subject matter" because of their upper-middle-class status in French society. Valadon's marginalized status allowed her to enter the contemporary male dominated domain of art through modeling and her lack of formal academic training may have made her less influenced by academic conventions. She has been noted for that difference in her paintings of the nude women. She resisted typical depictions of women, emphasizing class trappings and their sexual attractiveness, through her realistic depiction of unidealised and self-possessed women who are not overly sexualised. She also painted many nude self-portraits across the span of her career, the later of which displayed her aging body realistically. Valadon emphasized the importance of the composition of her portraits over techniques such as painting expressive eyes. Her later works, such as '' Blue Room'' (1923), are brighter in color and show a new emphasis on decorative backgrounds and patterned materials.

Personal life

In 1883, aged 18, Valadon gave birth to a son,

. Valadon's mother cared for Maurice while she returned to modelling. Later, Valadon's friend Miquel Utrillo signed papers recognizing Maurice as his son, although the true paternity was never disclosed. In 1893, Valadon began a short-lived affair with composer

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

, moving to a room next to his on the . Satie became obsessed with her, calling her his ', writing impassioned notes about "her whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny feet". After six months she left, leaving him devastated. Valadon married the stockbroker Paul Mousis in 1895. For 13 years, she lived with him in an apartment in Paris and in a house in the outlying region. In 1909, Valadon began an affair with the painter André Utter, a 23-year-old friend of her son. He became a model for her and appears as Adam in ''Adam et Eve'', which was painted that year. She divorced Moussis in 1913. Valadon then married Utter in 1914. Utter managed her career as well as that of her son. Valadon and Utter regularly exhibited work together until the couple divorced in 1934, when Valadon was almost seventy. They continued a relationship until her death, nonetheless, and are buried together in the Saint Ouen cemetery in Paris. Suzanne Valadon died of a stroke on 7 April 1938, at the age of 72, and was buried in Division 13 of the

Cimetière de Saint-Ouen The Saint-Ouen Cemetery (french: cimetière parisien de Saint-Ouen) is located just north of Montmartre at Saint-Ouen, near Paris. The cemetery consists of two parts. The first, located on Rue Adrien Lesesne opened in 1860 and the second at 2 A ...

, Paris. Among those in attendance at the funeral were her friends and colleagues

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. I ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, and

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions

* 1894, , Paris * 1907, Galerie Eugène Blot, Paris * 1909,

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

, Grand Palais, Paris * 1910,

, Grand Palais, Paris * 1911,

, Grand Palais, Paris * 1911 - continuing,

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

, Paris * 1917, Utrillo, Valadon,

Utter In spoken language analysis, an utterance is a continuous piece of speech, often beginning and ending with a clear pause. In the case of oral languages, it is generally, but not always, bounded by silence. Utterances do not exist in written langu ...

, Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris * 1920, Second Exhibition of Young French Painting, Galerie Manzy Joyant, Paris * 1921, Young Painting, Palais d'Ixelles * 1926, (retrospective),

, Paris * 1927, Salon des Tuileries, Paris * 1928, Salon des Tuileries, Paris * 1933-1938, Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes, Paris After her death in 1938 * 1940, 22nd Biennale Internationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris * 1949, Great Trends in Contemporary Painting from Manet to our Day, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons; 1961, Maurice Utrillo V. Suzanne Valadon,

Haus der Kunst The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a non-collecting modern and contemporary art museum in Munich, Germany. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. History Na ...

, Munich * 1964, Documenta, Kassel * 1969, Fourteenth Salon de Montrouge * 1976, Women Artists (1550-1950),

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

* 1979, Maurice Utrillo, Suzanne Valadon,

Musée Toulouse-Lautrec The Musée Toulouse-Lautrec is an art museum in Albi, southern France, dedicated mainly to the work of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was born in Albi. The 13th century building was originally the Bishop's Palace of Albi Cathedral, nex ...

* 1991, Albi: Utrillo, Valadon, Utter, Chateau Constant, Bessines * 1991, Utrillo, Valadon, Utter: la Trilogie Maudite, Acropolis, Nice

Solo exhibitions

* 1911, the first

solo exhibition A solo show or solo exhibition is an exhibition of the work of only one artist. The artwork may be paintings, drawings, etchings, collage, sculpture, or photography. The creator of any artistic technique may be the subject of a solo show. Other s ...

of the work of Suzanne Valadon, at the Galerie Clovis Sagot * 1915, Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris * 1919, Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris * 1922, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris * 1923, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris * 1927, retrospective, Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris * 1928, Galerie des Archers, Lyons * 1928, Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris * 1929, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris * 1929, Galerie Bernier, Paris * 1931, Galerie Le Portique, Paris * 1931, Galerie Le Centaure, Brussels * 1932, Galerie Le Portique, Paris * 1932, retrospective with a preface by Édouard Herriot, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris * 1937, Galerie Bernier, Paris * 1938, Galerie Pétridès, Paris * 1939, Galerie Bernier, Paris * 1942, Galerie Pétridès, Paris * 1947, Galerie Bernier, Paris * 1947, Galerie Pétridès, Paris * 1948, Tribute to Suzanne Valadon, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris * 1956, The Lefevre Gallery, London * 1959, Galerie Pétridès, Paris * 1962, Galerie Pétridès, Paris * 1967, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris * 1996, Suzanne Valadon, Pierre Gianada Foundation, Martigny * 2021, Barnes Foundation, September 26, 2021 to January 9, 2022, first major U.S. solo exhibition of Valadon's work * 2022, Glyptoteket, Copenhagen

Permanent collections

* Albright-Knox, Buffalo *

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, London *

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...

, Pittsburgh * Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas * Detroit Institute of Arts *

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, Cambridge * Indianapolis Museum of Art *

* Minneapolis Institute of Art *

Musée d'Unterlinden The Unterlinden Museum (French: ''Musée Unterlinden'') is located in Colmar, in the Alsace region of France. The museum, housed in a 13th-century Dominican religious sisters' convent and a 1906 former public baths building, is home to the Isenhe ...

, Colmar * Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon *

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York *

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

* Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City * Petit Palais, Geneva * Rose Art Museum, Waltham *

Smart Museum of Art The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The permanent collection has over 15,000 objects. Admission is free and open to the general public. The Smart Muse ...

, Chicago * University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor

Gallery

Artwork by Valadon

File:SValadonSelfPortrait1883.jpg, ''Self-portrait'', 1883 File:Portrait de Maurice Utrillo à 7ans par sa mère Suzanne Valadon.jpg, ''My son at seven years old'', 1890 File:Suzanne Valadon - Portrait d'Erik Satie.jpg, ''Portrait of Erik Satie'', 1893 File:Suzanne Valadon , Nu, 1895.jpg, ''Nude'', 1895 File:Valadon Women MIA 200315630.jpg, ''Women'', c.1895 File:ValadonSuzanne TheBath.jpg, ''The Bath'', 1908 File:Adam and Eve, Suzanne Valadon.jpg, '' Adam and Eve'', by Suzanne Valadon, 1909 File:Suzanne Valadon - Nus.jpg, ''Nudes'', 1919 File:Suzanne Valadon - Blumenvase auf einem runden Tisch - 1920.jpeg, ''Flowers on a Round Table'', 1920 File:Maurice Utrillo, par Suzanne Valadon.jpg, ''Portrait of the Painter Maurice Utrillo'', 1921 File:The Blue Room by Suzanne Valadon.jpg, '' The Blue Room (La chambre bleue)'', 1923 File:Still Life with Tulips and Fruit Bowl 1924.jpg, ''Still Life with Tulips and Fruit Bowl'', 1924 File:Portrait de Maurice Utrillo par sa mère Suzanne Valadon.jpg, ''Portrait of Maurice Utrillo'', 1925 File:Bouquet de fleur, par Suzanne Valadon.jpg, ''Bouquet of Flowers'', 1928 File:Still Life with Basket of Apples Vase of Flowers 1928.jpg, ''Still Life with Basket of Apples Vase of Flowers'', 1928 File:Young Girl in Front of a Window by Suzanne Valadon, San Diego Museum of Art.JPG, ''Young Girl in Front of a Window'', 1930 File:Autoportrait (Valadon).jpg, Suzanne Valadon, ''Self-portrait'' File:Bouquet de roses Suzanne Valadon.jpg, ''Bouquet de roses'', 1936 File:(Albi) Jeune fille au bain ~1919 - Suzanne Valadon HsT.jpg, ''Young Girl Bathing'' Valadon, Nu au châle bleu.jpg, '' Nude Woman with a Blue Shawl'' (1930)

Portraits of Valadon

File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Suzanne Valadon - profile.jpg, ''Profile portrait of Suzanne Valadon'', by

, 1885 File:Toulouse LAUTREC, Henri - Portrait de Suzanne Valadon (Madame Suzanne Valadon, artiste peintre) - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

Portrait of Suzanne Valadon A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

'', by

, 1885 File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Suzanne Valadon - 1885.jpg, Portrait of Valadon, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1885 File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Suzanne Valadon - La Natte - Girl Braiding Her Hair.jpg, ''

The Braid ''The Braid'', also known as ''Femme se coiffant'', ''La Natte'', or ''Girl Braiding Her Hair'', is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, created between 1886-1887 during his so-called dry or Ingres period.Feist, ...

'' by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1886-1887 File:Portrait de Suzanne Valadon par Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg, ''The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon)'', by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, c. 1888 File:Cau Ferrat (planta baixa) 30 Retrat de Suzanne Valadon per Miquel Utrillo 1891.JPG, ''Portrait of Suzanne Valadon'', by Miquel Utrillo, 1891 File:Hector Leroux--1892--portrait de Susanne--1892.jpg, ''Vestal reading'' (study), by Hector Leroux, c. 1892

Illustrations

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

, Bertrand Guégan (1892-1943); ''L'almanach de Cocagne pour l'an 1920-1922, Dédié aux vrais Gourmands Et aux Francs Buveurs''

Feminist commentary

As one of the best documented French artists of the early twentieth century, Valadon's body of work has been of great interest to feminist art historians, especially given her focus on the female form. Her work was candid and occasionally awkward, often characterized by strong lines, and her resistance to both academic and avant-garde conventions for representing the female nude have encouraged interest in her work: It has been argued that many of her images of women signal a form of resistance to some of the dominant representations of female sexuality in early twentieth-century Western art. Many of her nudes painted from the 1910s onward are heavily proportioned and sometimes awkwardly posed. The feminist critics assert that they are conspicuously at odds with the svelte, 'feminine' type to be found in the imagery of both popular and 'high' art. Her self-portrait from 1931, when she was 66, stands out as one of the early examples of a woman painter recording her own physical decline. Like many other talented female artists, although she is known to have been an important modern artist, Valadon never had been given a solo exhibition by a U.S. art institution. Her first institutional solo exhibition in the U.S., at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, was scheduled to open in September 2021.

Honors and legacy

Both an asteroid ( 6937 Valadon) and a crater on Venus are named in her honor. The small square at the base of the

Montmartre funicular The Montmartre Funicular (french: Funiculaire de Montmartre) is an inclined transport system serving the Montmartre neighbourhood of Paris, France, in the 18th arrondissement. Operated by the RATP, the Paris transport authority, the system opened ...

in Paris is named Place Suzanne Valadon. At the top of the funicular, and less than 50 meters to its east, are the steps named rue Maurice Utrillo after her son the artist.

Depiction in novels and plays

A novel based on the life of Suzanne Valadon was written by Elaine Todd Koren and was published in 2001, titled ''Suzanne: of Love and Art''. An earlier novel by Sarah Baylis, ''Utrillo's Mother'', was published first in England and later in the United States. Timberlake Wertenbaker's play, ''

The Line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

'' (2009), traces the relationship between Valadon and Degas. Several have speculated Valadon was the basis for the character Suzanne Rouvier in the

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

's 1944 novel ''

The Razor's Edge ''The Razor's Edge'' is a 1944 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. The story beg ...

''. There were many parallels between Valadon's life and that of the Rouvier character. Suzanne Valadon’s relationships with Edgar Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec are described in R.w. Meek’s two historical fiction novels, The Dream Collector, Book I “Sabrine & Sigmund Freud” and The Dream Collector, Book II “Sabrine & Vincent van Gogh.”

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * *

External links

* A concise biography of Valadon. * A gallery of her depictions of cats. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valadon, Suzanne 1865 births 1938 deaths 19th-century French painters 19th-century French women artists 20th-century French painters 20th-century French women artists French artists' models French circus performers French women painters Members of the Ligue de la patrie française French modern painters People of Montmartre Burials at Saint-Ouen Cemetery 19th-century women painters