Suzanne Valadon(1865 — 1938)
Suzanne Valadon
France
6 min read
Suzanne Valadon was a French painter and engraver, a former model for the great artists of Montmartre who became a leading self-taught artist. She was one of the first women admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the mother of the painter Maurice Utrillo.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1865 in Bessines-sur-Gartempe, died in 1938 in Paris
- Model for Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec in the 1880s
- Encouraged by Edgar Degas, who bought her drawings and introduced her to engraving around 1893
- First woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894
- Mother of the painter Maurice Utrillo, born in 1883
Works & Achievements
One of her earliest self-portraits, revealing from a very young age an unflinching gaze upon herself.
A large composition of nudes outdoors that asserts her ambition as a painter in the face of academic tradition.
A triptych of three male nudes, a rare audacity for a woman painter of the period.
Portrait of a reclining modern woman, in trousers and with a cigarette, which became an icon of women's painting; held at the Centre Pompidou.
A group portrait showcasing her mastery of painting from life and of bold, vivid colours.
A female nude outlined with a vigorous black line, characteristic of her style free of idealization.
An intimate portrait that reveals her tenderness for scenes of everyday life and motherhood.
Anecdotes
Born Marie-Clémentine Valadon, the daughter of a laundress, she was in turn an apprentice, a shop assistant and a circus acrobat in her youth. A fall from the trapeze, around the age of fifteen, put an end to that career and pushed her toward the studios of Montmartre, where she became a model to earn her living.
A sought-after model, she posed for Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was the latter who, amused by her nerve and her temperament, is said to have nicknamed her “Suzanne,” in reference to the biblical episode of Susanna and the Elders, because she was surrounded by older painters.
While she posed, Suzanne secretly watched the masters' gestures and drew on the sly. When she showed her drawings to Edgar Degas, he was struck by their strength and warmly encouraged her, buying her works and teaching her engraving: “You are one of us,” he is said to have told her.
A very young mother to Maurice Utrillo, born in 1883 when she was only eighteen, she taught him to paint herself in an attempt to steer him away from alcoholism. Her son became a famous painter of Montmartre, making the Valadon-Utrillos one of the best-known families of artists in Paris.
Bold for her time, she was one of the first women painters to openly depict male nudes. Her powerful bodies, outlined with a black contour and free of idealization, shocked viewers with their frankness and asserted a woman artist's gaze that was rare in the art of her day.
Primary Sources
“You are one of us.” Degas, discovering Valadon's drawings, recognizes in her a true artist and encourages her to persevere.
Degas calls her “the terrible Maria” and buys several of her drawings, praising the vigor of her line.
Suzanne Valadon is among the first women admitted to exhibit within the Société, starting in 1894.
“I painted people in order to know them.” She lays claim to a direct art, observed from real life and without indulgence.
Key Places
Birthplace of Suzanne Valadon, which she left as a child to move to Paris with her mother, a laundress.
Bohemian district of painters and cabarets where she grew up, posed as a model, and then became a painter.
Studio she shared with Utrillo and Utter; the building today houses the Museum of Montmartre.
Estate acquired in the 1920s where the Valadon-Utrillo-Utter family painted landscapes and still lifes.
Gallery that hosted a major retrospective in 1932 that cemented her reputation.
Burial place of Suzanne Valadon, where she was laid to rest after her funeral in 1938.
