Who is Suzanne Valadon?

The story of a very under-rated woman painter.

Suzanne Valadon started her career as a circus acrobat at the age of 15. The circus she performed in was a popular attraction with many contemporary artists, including Berthe Morisot who painted her as a trapeze artist.

Unfortunately, she had a fall from the trapeze, and this was the end of her career as a circus artist. She began working as an artist model when she was 15, and worked for many famous artists, including Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Auguste Renoir – Dance at Bougival – painting of Suzanne Valadon – 1883

Toulouse-Lautrec – The Hangover – portrait of Suzanne Valladon 1889

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

In 1883, aged 18, Valadon gave birth to a son, Maurice Utrillo.^[Valadon's mother cared for Maurice while she returned to modeling.^[Later, Valadon's friend Miquel Utrillo signed papers recognizing Maurice as his son, although the true paternity was never disclosed

She started drawing when she was 9 years old.

Here are two early drawings

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, who was impressed by her bold line drawings and fine paintings.

Edgar Degas – The Tub – painting of Suzanne Valladon - 1886

She soon was recognized as an exceptionally talented artist and started painting full-time in 1896.

Here is an early self-portrait painted in 1883.

Here she is painting in her studio/

She painted still lifes,

flowers

portraits, like this one of her som,Maurice Utrillo,

and landscapes that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors.

L’Eglise d’Irigny

She was, however, best known for her candid female nudes that depict women's bodies from a woman's perspective. Her work attracted attention partly because, as a woman painting unidealized nudes, she upset the social norms of the time’

Seated Nude

She started a short affair with the composer Eric Satie in 1893. He became obsessed with her. calling her his Biqui, writing impassioned notes about "her whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny feet". After six months she left, leaving him devastated.

Eric Satie by Suzanne Valadon

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.

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.

The Joy of Life

Casting The Net

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.

Nude on Couch

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.

The Abandoned Doll

Valadon emphasized the importance of the composition of her portraits over techniques such as painting expressive eyes later works, such as Blue Room (1923), are brighter in color and show a new emphasis on decorative backgrounds and patterned materials.

The Blue Room

She painted quite many self-portraits, including some of herself nude.

She divorced Mousis in 1913 Valadon and 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, Paris. Among those in attendance at the funeral were her friends and colleagues André Derain, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque

Raminou