Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon, born Marie-Clémentine Valadon, was a French Post-Impressionist and Symbolist artist who lived from 1865 to 1938. She was a well-known model and muse for famous artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile Steinlen, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and had love affairs with Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Chavannes.
Suzanne Valadon grew up poor and worked at various jobs, including one as a circus tightrope walker, which was immortalized in an 1880 drawing by Berthe Morisot, titled “Tightrope Walker”. Valadon had to abandon the circus after she suffered an injury during a fall. Afterwards, in that same year, she began working as a model for artists in Montmartre in Paris. Valadon was given the nickname, Suzanne, by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, after the story of Susanna and the Elders from the Bible’s ‘Book of Daniel’. He joked that she was like Susanna, who was spied upon by much older men. Some famous pieces that depict Valadon include Renoir’s “Dance at Bougival,” “The Large Bathers”, and “The Braid”, as well as Toulouse-Lautrec’s “The Hangover.”
In 1883, Valadon gave birth to her son, Maurice Utrillo. As her mother did with Suzanne’s father, she kept his true paternity secret, though the art critic, Miquel Utrillo, took responsibility for him. Her mother helped raise her son so she could go back to work modeling. While modeling, she learned was able to pick up the techniques of various artists who gladly trained her. Her earliest work to survive to this day is a self-portrait from 1883. Valadon eventually became an established artist herself. By 1890, Valadon was being mentored by Edgar Degas. In 1894, Valadon became the first female artist ever to be admitted into the exhibitions of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1895, Valadon married Paul Mousis, a stockbroker. By 1896, although receiving no formal training, Valadon was making enough money from her art that she was able to become a full-time artist herself.
Suzanne Valadon’s most known pieces are female nudes, though she also painted portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. One of her first patrons was Edgar Degas who liked her strong compositions. Degas purchased three of her pastel pieces and personally introduced Valadon to other collectors. Valadon’s technique used bold lines and vibrant colors. As a perfectionist, she sometimes spent many years completing her pieces.
In 1909, Valadon began a long-term relationship with the artist, André Utter, who was a friend of her son’s. After divorcing her first husband, Mousis, in 1913, she married Utter the following year. They remained married until 1934, though the two remained in a relationship for the rest of her life. Suzanne Valadon died in 1938 from a stroke at 72 years old. She was mourned by the art world, and many famous artists attended her funeral including Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
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