“I had great masters. I took the best of them, of their teachings, of their examples. I found myself, I made myself and I said what I had to say.” Suzanne Valadon
The illegitimate daughter of a drunken laundress, artist Suzanne Valadon (1865 – 1938) overcame her poor background to forge a career in a man’s world. Contrasts are drawn with Valadon’s contemporaries Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt who both came from wealthy families and were thus thought to be restricted in their subjects and outlook. Raised on the streets, Valadon had seen it all and this gave her the confidence to be independent and paint challenging subjects. It’s worth noting that both Morisot and Cassatt eventually bought paintings by Valadon.
When she was in her teens, Valadon worked as a bare-back rider in the circus. But after injuring her back in a fall, she became a model for artists – supposedly one of the few professions available at the time to young, beautiful women from poor backgrounds. During her modelling career, Valadon cleverly cultivated contacts, gleaning techniques and ideas. She made up stories about her background – raising or lowering her age depending on the circumstances. She became the lover of many notable artists such as Renoir who painted possibly the best known image of her.
Renoir Dance At Bougival 1883. The male figure is Renoir’s brother.
Henry Toulouse-Lautrec met Valadon when she lived just next door to him in Paris and she became his mistress and muse for about two years. One of the most moving of all depictions of Valadon is “A Grenelle” painted by Toulouse-Lautrec and based on a song of the same title sung by the sad balladeer Aristide Bruant.
Toulouse-Lautrec ‘A Grenelle
Unlike most of Valadon’s artist contacts, Toulouse-Lautrec took her artistic ambitions seriously. It was he who convinced Valadon to change her name from Marie-Clementine to Suzanne, claiming no one would take her seriously if she was named after a fruit.
In 1896, she got involved with well-to-do lawyer Paul Mousis and with financial security behind her, she was able to focus full time on her art. Mousis purchased a house for her, her mother and son (thought to be Renoir’s, but he denied this). The marriage didn’t last and her son, the artist Maurice Utrillo was having problems of his own. Yet through all this and beyond, her career flourished.
Without any formal training Valadon developed a technique of her own with bold heavy strokes and a very direct style, laced with emotion. Her nudes were considered very sincere and intense.
Valadon Reclining Nude 1928 Oil On Canvas
Valadon met the artist Andre Utter through Maurice and she became transfixed by him. She was still living with Paul at the time.
Valadon Adam and Eve 1909 Oil on canvas
The figures (believed to be Valadon and Utter) are almost life size and this is the first painting by a woman depicting a nude male and female – so it created quite a stir. The leaves covering Utter’s genitals were a later addition to enable the exhibition of this work at the 1920 salon. The painting is audacious as there is no idealization here, instead there is a raw fleshiness in the presentation of the bodies already entwined as Eve (Valadon) picks the forbidden fruit. It’s thought that Valadon was referencing her relationship with Utter – an older woman with a much younger man.
Valadon The Joy of Life 1911 Oil on canvas
This is a familiar subject painted by Cezanne, Matisse and Gauguin among others but for one major feature – the presence of the male nude modelled by Utter again. In previous paintings of this genre, the female figures are presented as languidly displaying themselves with no suggestion of where this might lead. But with Valadon, there is again a demystifying of the scene and a clear pointer to desire and sexual gratification.
Art historian Gill Perry writes of the female figures being strangely separated from each other, from the male viewer and from nature that surrounds them….there is no evoking of the harmony between women and nature as suggested by Matisse or Gauguin. She puts this down to Valadon’s “robust and sharply outlined” style. Not surprisingly, Valadon’s “marriage” to Mousis ended.
Such was the growth in her reputation that in 1923 the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery signed an unprecedented contract with Valadon worth 1m francs per year just to have her on a retainer.
References:
Through The Eyes Of An Artist; Suzanne Valadon – Youtube
Toulouse-Lautrec, The Full Story – ZCZ Films 2006
Suzanne Valadon – The Art Story 2019