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Suzanne Valadon
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Early Days:
Suzanne Valadon (23 September 1865 – 7 April 1938) was a French painter born Marie-Clementine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienna, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She is also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo. |
Career:
In the Monometer quarter of Paris, she pursued her interest in art, first working as a model for artists, observing and learning their techniques, before becoming a noted painter herself. She modeled for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (who gave her painting lessons), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Pierre-Cecile Purvis de Chavannes, and is known to have had affairs with the latter two. In the early 1890s she befriended Edgar Degas who, impressed with her bold line drawings and fine paintings, purchased her work and encouraged her efforts. She remained one of Degas' closest friends until his death.
The most recognizable image of Valadon would be in Renoir's Dance at Bougival from 1883, the same year that she posed for City Dance. 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 along with her fellow painters, and Toulouse-Lautrec painted her as the subject of The Hangover.
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Valadon painted still life, portraits, floral art, and landscapes that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors. She was, however, best known for her candid female nudes. A perfectionist, she worked on some of her oil paintings for up to thirteen years, before showing them. She also worked in pastel. Her first exhibitions, held in the early 1890s, consisted mostly of portraits.
Today, some of her works may be seen at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Musee des Beaux Arts in Grenoble, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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