Suzanne Valadon
French·1865–1938
Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938) broke every rule that 19th-century Paris had for women. Born to an unmarried laundress, she worked as a circus acrobat until a fall ended that career at sixteen. She then became an artists' model in Montmartre, posing for Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Edgar Degas. Toulouse-Lautrec nicknamed her "Suzanne" after the biblical story, noting her preference for older artists.
While modeling, Valadon taught herself to draw by watching the painters work. Degas became her mentor, buying her drawings and teaching her soft-ground etching. In 1894, she became the first woman admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Her subjects were direct and unsparing: robust female nudes painted without the coy poses men typically demanded, honest portraits, and bold still lifes. She worked in the Post-Impressionist style with vivid colors and strong outlines.
Her personal life was as unconventional as her art. At eighteen she gave birth to Maurice Utrillo, who became a famous painter himself. She married a banker, divorced him, then scandalized society by marrying her son's twenty-three-year-old friend. Picasso, Derain, and Braque attended her funeral in 1938. She left behind 500 paintings and 300 works on paper, though art history long overlooked her in favor of the men she modeled for. Today her work hangs in the Musée d'Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Notable Works by Suzanne Valadon
3 paintings catalogued with museum locations
Museums with Suzanne Valadon's Work
2 museums display Valadon's works. Click any museum to see visiting info and the specific works they hold.
About Suzanne Valadon
Valadon worked in the Post-Impressionist style, using bold colors and strong black outlines that recalled Gauguin. She was deeply embedded in the Montmartre avant-garde scene alongside Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Renoir.
Major collections of her work are at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Centre Pompidou. Her powerful female nudes are increasingly recognized as pioneering works.
Her son Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) became one of France's most celebrated painters, known for his Montmartre street scenes. Valadon taught him to paint as therapy for his alcoholism, and the two exhibited together throughout their careers.
She was the first woman admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894, sponsored by Degas. She also pioneered honest depictions of the female nude from a woman's perspective, without the idealization or voyeurism typical of male painters.
Valadon posed for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Puvis de Chavannes as a young circus acrobat turned model. Degas discovered her drawings and became her mentor, the only formal artistic guidance she ever received.
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