Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon), (1865, France - 1938, France)
Le Lancement du filet/ Throwing the net, c. 1914
Oil on canvas
201 x 301 cm
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France
Presented at the Salon des Indépendants in 1914, the monumental academic panel irritated avant-garde critics. Arthur Cravan, who in issue five of his episodic review Now, writes an angry criticism of the Salon, violently attacks Suzanne Valadon ("[she] knows the little recipes well, but simplifying is not making simple, old bitch!"). Sentenced for defamation, he replied fiercely in a supplement to his review: “Contrary to my assertion, Ms. Suzanne Valadon is a virtue”. Le Lancement du Filet is Valadon's latest work dedicated to the male nude. Subsequently, she devoted herself especially to an iconography centered on the nudes of women and children. More on this painting
Suzanne Valadon (23 September 1865 – 7 April 1938) was a French painter and artists' model. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.
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, female portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. She never attended the academy and was never confined within a tradition.
Valadon grew up in poverty with her mother, an unmarried laundress in Montmartre; she did not know her father. Known to be quite independent and rebellious, she attended primary school until age 11.
She also began working at age 11. She held various odd jobs which included: a milliner's workshop, a factory making funeral wreaths, selling vegetables, a waitress, and then finally the circus at the age of 15. She was able to work at the circus due to her connection with Count Antoine de la Rochefoucauld and Thèo Wagner, two symbolist painters, who were involved in decorating a circus belonging to Medrano. Her job position in the circus was a acrobat, however a year into working there she fell from a Trapeze ending her circus career. The circus was visited frequently by artists such as Lautrec and Berthe Morisot and this is rumored to be where Morisot did her painting of Valadon (See below).
Berthe Morisot
Valadon strived to become a serious artist, but unlike her contemporaries Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzalès, and Marie Bracquemond she could not afford art lessons. She therefore turned to modeling as a way to get close to and learn from the artists she admired, even though modeling, especially in the nude, was not considered a respectable occupation.
Valadon debuted as a model in 1880 in Montmartre at age 15. She modeled for over 10 years for many different artists including Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (See above), Théophile Steinlen (See above), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (See below), Jean-Jacques Henner (See above), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (See above). 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 liked modeling for older artists. For two years, she was Toulouse-Lautrec's lover until her attempted suicide in 1888.
In the early 1890s, she befriended Edgar Degas, who, impressed with her bold line drawings and fine paintings, purchased her work and encouraged her; she remained one of his closest friends until his death. 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 male post-impressionists' representations.
Valadon called Degas the Master, but Wertenbaker believes he also learned from her. "He loved her drawings and he did imitate them...I think he may also have learned other things from her; that there was another way of living, that there was another way of being that was very attractive.
In 1896, Valadon became a full-time painter after her marriage to the well-to-do banker Paul Mousis. She made a shift from drawing to painting starting in 1909. Her first large oils for the Salon related to sexual pleasure, and they were some of the first examples in painting for the man to be an object of desire by a woman. These notable Salon paintings include Adam and Eve (Adam et Eve) (1909), Joy of Life (La Joie de vivre) (1911), and Casting the Net (Lancement du filet) (1914). In her lifetime, Valadon produced around 273 drawings, 478 paintings, and 31 etchings, excluding pieces given away or destroyed.
In The Abandoned Doll, Suzanne Valadon portrays an intimate scene with a strong psychological mood. Seated on a bed, a fully clothed woman towels dry a girl. The girl, clad only in a pink hair ribbon, turns away from the woman and appears to inspect herself in a hand mirror. The pink bow echoes that in the hair of the doll, a symbol of childhood forgotten on the floor near the bed. This visual connection, combined with the girl’s maturing body, suggests that this is a moment of transition in her young life.
Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938)
La Joie de vivre/ Joy of Life, c. 1911
Oil on canvas
Height: 122.9 cm (48.3 in); Width: 205.7 cm (80.9 in)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Joy of Life is based on the theme of "women as nature," a typical subject at the time. Gill Perry has argued that the painting reworks the theme of bathers in nature. She notes that the women "seem strangely separate from each other, the male viewer and from the nature that surrounds them," which suggests a "more ambiguous, dislocated relationship with both nature and the male spectator."
Suzanne Valadon's Joy of Life depicts a landscape with four nude and seminude women who are watched by a nude man. The nude male was modeled by Valadon's lover, André Utter. They met through her son, Maurice Utrillo, and Utter modeled nude for several of Valadon's paintings, including Adam and Eve (1909) and Casting the Net (1914). More on this painting
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, female portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. She never attended the academy and was never confined within a tradition.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
The Braid, c. 1886-87
Suzanne Valadon - La Natte - Girl Braiding Her Hair
Oil on canvas
Height: 57 cm (22.4 in); Width: 47 cm (18.5 in)
Museum Langmatt, Baden, Switzerland
The artist Susanne Valadon — was blond and blue eyed, with a fair complexion. She modeled in the studio, rather than in a natural setting. However, Renoir’s vision was different: he promptly transformed her into the “Italian” woman he required, giving her dark hair, skin, and eyes. There may also have been certain commercial considerations: at the time, realistic representations were in tune with the tastes of the audience, and promised better sales than the Impressionist artworks so misunderstood by the era. More on this painting
Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon, dit), (1865, France - 1938, France)
Grand-mère et petit-fils, c. 1910
Oil on canvas
70 x 50 cm
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France
Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon, dit), (1865, France - 1938, France)
Portrait de famille/ Family portrait, c. 1912
Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo (center) and André Utter Suzanne Valadon in the studio
Oil on canvas
97 x 73 cm
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France
In 1896, Valadon married a wealthy stockbroker. A solid marriage allowed the artist to concentrate entirely on painting, but Suzanne would not be herself if this respectable union was the end of her turbulent life. In 1909, forty-four-year-old Suzanne was carried away by her son's friend, twenty-three-year-old handsome and novice artist Andre Utter. She left her broker and married Utter in 1914. Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo (center) and André Utter Suzanne Valadon in the studio. More on this painting
In this collective portrait, Suzanne Valadon is the only one directly facing the viewer, but she does so tentatively, with her hand on her chest. You can almost hear her say: “Moi? I am innocent, Monsieur”. Utter and Madame Valadon are gazing to their right, each foreseeing a different future: the young man looks confident and rather content, while the woman – all wrinkled and slightly hunchbacked, with the corners of her mouth turned downwards – appears resigned. Maurice Utrillo’s depiction earns the most sympathy, for he seems to be the most miserable and out of place, gazing melancholically with his head leaning on his hand, as if he simply cannot muster the energy to stand or sit upright; life has burdened him. More on this painting
Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon, dit), (1865, France - 1938, France)
La Famille Utter, 1921
Oil on canvas
95 x 135 cm
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France
As a model Valadon appeared in such paintings as Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 1883 Dance at Bougival (See below) and Dance in the City (See below), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's 1885 portrait(See below) and The Hangover (See below).
Henri from Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901)
Portrait of Suzanne Valadon, c. 1885
Oil on canvas
Height: 55 cm (21.6 in); Width: 46 cm (18.1 in)
National museum of fine arts, Buenos Aires
In this painting Suzanne is seated, represented frontally, in front of an autumn landscape. It is most likely the garden of the old Forest, a field dedicated to archery, located at the corner of boulevard de Clichy and rue Caulaincourt, a few steps from the atelierof the artist, where Lautrec made different female portraits ( Justine Dieuhl , 1891, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). Its body is delimited by a well-marked black outline –reminiscence of the example of Degas, for whom Lautrec felt real veneration– within which, however, the volumes seem to be summarily filled by broad strokes of color, whose porosity is exalted by the texture of the fabric without preparation. The face of the model is silhouetted against a set of chromatic planes that have lost the rigor and rigor of the contemporary Portrait of Jeanne Wenz(1886, The Art Institute of Chicago), already testifying to the great mastery and true ductility of brushwork acquired by the artist. The background, a harmony of yellows, beiges and browns, mixed in diluted touches, casts a kind of bluish veil over the woman's body, softening the firm expression of the character. More on this painting
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901)
The Hangover, Portrait of Suzanne Valadon, circa 1888
Oil on canvas
Height: 47 cm (18.5 in); Width: 55 cm (21.6 in)
Fogg Museum
Aristide Bruant, a cabaret owner, singer, and songwriter who exhibited Toulouse-Lautrec’s work in his establishment, gave this painting its title. Valadon’s scowl, slumped pose, and darkened eyes befit Bruant’s title perfectly, while the single glass and half-empty bottle of wine on the table suggest she drinks alone. The sketchy application of paint, which was diluted with turpentine and then brushed over an underdrawing approximates the hazy, indistinct perception of the café that the inebriated sitter would have through her half-closed eyes. Many of Toulouse-Lautrec’s contemporaries depicted the social phenomenon of alcoholism among women, which was a growing concern in medical circles. More on this painting
Valadon grew up in poverty with her mother, an unmarried laundress in Montmartre; she did not know her father. Known to be quite independent and rebellious, she attended primary school until age 11.
She also began working at age 11. She held various odd jobs which included: a milliner's workshop, a factory making funeral wreaths, selling vegetables, a waitress, and then finally the circus at the age of 15. She was able to work at the circus due to her connection with Count Antoine de la Rochefoucauld and Thèo Wagner, two symbolist painters, who were involved in decorating a circus belonging to Medrano. Her job position in the circus was a acrobat, however a year into working there she fell from a Trapeze ending her circus career. The circus was visited frequently by artists such as Lautrec and Berthe Morisot and this is rumored to be where Morisot did her painting of Valadon (See below).
Tightrope Walker, Suzanne Valadon, c. 1886
Pastel and charcoal on paper
62x47cm
Private collection
Valadon strived to become a serious artist, but unlike her contemporaries Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzalès, and Marie Bracquemond she could not afford art lessons. She therefore turned to modeling as a way to get close to and learn from the artists she admired, even though modeling, especially in the nude, was not considered a respectable occupation.
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1880)
Untitled, Nude 1880
Suzanne Valadon
I have no further description, at this time
Théophile Alexandre STEINLEN (1859-1923)
Presumed portrait of Suzanne Valadon
Pencil drawing and stump.
18.5 x 16.5 cm
Private collection
Jean-Jacques Henner
The reading light, c. between 1880 and 1890
Suzanne Valadon!
Oil on canvas
H. 94.0; L. 123.0 cm.
Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay)
Valadon debuted as a model in 1880 in Montmartre at age 15. She modeled for over 10 years for many different artists including Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (See above), Théophile Steinlen (See above), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (See below), Jean-Jacques Henner (See above), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (See above). 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 liked modeling for older artists. For two years, she was Toulouse-Lautrec's lover until her attempted suicide in 1888.
Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon, dit), (1865, France - 1938, France)
Adam et Eve, c. 1909
Oil on canvas
162 x 131 cm
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France
The biblical theme of Adam and Evehides a self-portrait of the artist with her lover, in the form of a hymn to love and freedom of the body. The figures stand out from an archaic decoration, adorned with the traditional symbolic apple tree, as if floating, dancing in paradise. Vine leaves hide Utter's sex, while Eve is about to bite the apple. A photograph of the first state of the painting reveals to us that the grape leaf belt is a repaint, added later, no doubt at the request of the organizers of the Salon d'Automne in 1920, where the painting was revealed. This prudish act of censorship betrays the difficulty faced by women artists in presenting, at the time, the bodies of entirely naked men and confirms the pioneering role played by Suzanne Valadon in breaking with conventions. More on this painting
In the early 1890s, she befriended Edgar Degas, who, impressed with her bold line drawings and fine paintings, purchased her work and encouraged her; she remained one of his closest friends until his death. 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 male post-impressionists' representations.
Edgar Degas (1834–1917)
Woman Combing her Hair, circa 1885
Pastell
52 × 51 cm (20.4 × 20 in)
Collection
State Hermitage Museum
Valadon called Degas the Master, but Wertenbaker believes he also learned from her. "He loved her drawings and he did imitate them...I think he may also have learned other things from her; that there was another way of living, that there was another way of being that was very attractive.
It's hard to imagine that he spent as much time as he did with her and spoke of her so warmly and wanted to see her so much if he didn't get something from her because Degas was somebody who was very curious and didn't suffer fools gladly. More on this painting
The most recognizable image of Valadon is in Renoir's Dance at Bougival from 1883 (See below), the same year that she posed for Dance in the City (See below). In 1885, Renoir painted her portrait again as Girl Braiding Her Hair (See above). 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 (See above).
Valadon began painting full-time in 1896. She painted still lifes, portraits, flowers, and landscapes that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors. 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.
Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar
Valadon's earliest surviving signed and dated work is a self-portrait from 1883, drawn in charcoal and pastel. 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. 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's first time in the Salon de la Nationale was in 1894. She also exhibited in the Salon d'Automne from 1909, Salon des Independants from 1911; Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes, 1933-1938. Degas was notably the first person to buy drawings from her, and he also introduced her to other collectors, including Paul Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. Degas also taught her the skill of soft-ground etching.
Valadon began painting full-time in 1896. She painted still lifes, portraits, flowers, and landscapes that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors. 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.
Suzanne Valadon (French, Bessines-sur-Gartempe 1865–1938 Paris)
Reclining Nude, c. 1928
Oil on canvas (lined)
23 5/8 x 31 11/16 in.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The reclining nude in the present painting confronts the viewer through her gaze and proximity to the picture plane, yet she obscures her body, crossing her legs and covering her breasts. The pose evokes gestures of modesty associated with classical Antique sculpture. More on this painting
VALADON Suzanne
Nude in a blue shawl, c. 1930
Oil on canvas
Suzanne Valadon
Nude Arranging Her Hair, ca. 1916
Oil on canvasboard
41 1/4 x 29 5/8 in.
National Museum of Women in the Arts,
Nude Arranging Her Hair is characteristic of Valadon’s nudes, whom she frequently portrayed in the midst of mundane, daily activities. The heavy, undulating outline of objects as well as in the unblended strokes of paint are typical of the artist’s style.
She executed this painting during World War I, and it likely depicts a woman named Gaby, who worked as a housekeeper for Valadon at the time. The artist typically used to friends, family, and acquaintances as her models. More on this painting
In 1896, Valadon became a full-time painter after her marriage to the well-to-do banker Paul Mousis. She made a shift from drawing to painting starting in 1909. Her first large oils for the Salon related to sexual pleasure, and they were some of the first examples in painting for the man to be an object of desire by a woman. These notable Salon paintings include Adam and Eve (Adam et Eve) (1909), Joy of Life (La Joie de vivre) (1911), and Casting the Net (Lancement du filet) (1914). In her lifetime, Valadon produced around 273 drawings, 478 paintings, and 31 etchings, excluding pieces given away or destroyed.
Suzanne Valadon
The Abandoned Doll, c. 1921
Oil on canvas
51 x 32 in.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Though we know the figures portrayed here are Valadon’s niece and the girl’s mother, the artist refrains from identifying this as a portrait. In this way, the painting tells a more universal story of a girl’s journey from childhood to adolescence, which resonates with many viewers. More on this painting
The open-air cafés of suburban Bougival, a town on the river Seine west of Paris, were popular recreation spots for city dwellers, including the Impressionists. Here, at one such café—its floor littered with cigarettes, burnt matches, and a small bouquet of flowers—an amateur boatman in a straw hat sweeps his stylish partner along in a waltz. The touch of their gloveless hands, their flushed cheeks and intimate proximity, suggest a sensuous subtext to this scene. The son of a dressmaker and a tailor, Renoir delighted in capturing intricate details of contemporary fashions, such as the woman’s red bonnet trimmed with purple fruits. More on this painting
Valadon was well known during her lifetime, especially towards the end of her career. Her works are in the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Grenoble, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others. More on Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon
Girl on a Small Wall, c. 1930
Oil on canvas
36 ¼ x 29 in
National Museum of Women in the Arts
As a young woman, Valadon acted as a model for well-known artists including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The female figure in Renoir’s Dance at Bougival (1883) and Dance in the City are said to be Valadon. Inspired and mentored by these artists, she began her own career in her 30s (See below).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)
Dance at Bougival, c. 1883
Oil on canvas
181.9 x 98.1 cm (71 5/8 x 38 5/8 in.)
Museum of Fine Art, Boston
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
Dance in the City, c. 1882-1883
Oil on canvas
Height: 180 cm (70.8 in); Width: 90 cm (35.4 in)
Musée d'Orsay
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 companion pieces Dance in the Country and Dance at Bougival, was produced to order for the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. All three were painted in 1883 featuring two people dancing in different environments (although the woman in Dance in the Country was modelled by Aline Charigot, later Renoir's wife). More on this painting
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