Model, artist, muse, lover, and mother of Utrillo

1.  Woman
 Artist
 Model

2. Suzanne Valadon was born in 1865 at
Bessines-sur-Gartempe, an illegitimate
daughter of a French laundress. She
became an artists' model, posing for such
artists as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes,
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and
Renoir.Mingling with the Impressionists in
the clubs and cabarets of Montmartre,
where she caused a sensation with her
provocative stunts, Suzanne took
numerous lovers. At eighteen she gave
birth to an illegitimate son, the future artist
Maurice Utrillo. Valadon soon took interest
in painting. She observed the techniques
of the artists for whom she was posing and
began creating her own paintings. Among
the artists she knew were van Gogh,
Gauguin, Picasso and Modigliani.

4. With her son, the famous painter
Maurice Utrillo, born Maurice
Valladon

5. Family portrait, c. 1910.
Utter, Valladon, Utter’s
mother and Maurice
Utrillo

6. Mother Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) and son Maurice Utrillo, born Maurice Valadon
(1883-1955)

7. From age nine
Suzanne supported
herself by doing odd
jobs. One was as a
circus acrobat. She did
it until she fell off the
trapeze when she was
sixteen.

19. The Violin
Box, 1923

20. Suzanne Valadon painted
still-lifes, floral art, and
landscapes that were noted
for their strong composition
and vibrant colors. Her first
exhibitions in the early 1890s
consisted mainly of portraits,
among them one of Erik
Satie with whom she began
an affair in 1893.
Portrait of Composer Erik Satie
c.1892

21. Portrait of Lily Walton
1923

22. Portrait of Mme
Zamaron 1922

23. Geneviève Camax-
Zoegger, 1936

24. Portrait of Madame Coquiot
1918

25. Femme allongée sur un canapé

26. Even if Valadon received
no formal art training, she
was able (through her
close associations with
prominent artists) to
develop a re-gendering of
women's bodies and
strength. The self-
absorption and vitality of
her subjects, for instance,
are in stark opposition to
the essential passivity of
females nudes that had
until then been the
traditional manner of
representing
womanhood.

27. The abandoned doll
This painting exhibits all
the characteristics of
Valadon's mature work:
brightly colored forms
defined by heavy, dark
outlines; strange,
somewhat awkward
poses; and deliberately
simplified, distorted
anatomy and space.

29. Reclining Nude on a Sofa , 1928

32. Nudes
(1919).
(MASP, São
Paulo).

33. Nu assis sur un
divan 1922

34. Le lancement du filet ,1914

35. Adam and Eve, modeled
on Valadon and her
young lover
In 1906, her son
Maurice introduced
to her his friend
André Utter. By that
time she was
married to
stockbroker Paul
Mousis, whom she
had married in 1896.
She fell in love with
André Utter, na artist
21 years younger
than her, who
became the love of
her life

36. Self portrait, 1927

37. Portrait de Utrillo 1921

38. La femme aux
bas blancs 1924

39. Woman with
a Double
Bass 1914

40. Montocorin farm

41. L’aulne dans la
prairie - 1922

42. Houses on the countryside -1916

43. View from My
Window in
Genets
(Brittany)
1922

45. Portrait of Maurice Utrillo
(1883-1955), his
Grandmother and his Dog,
1910

46. The Blue Room

47. Young Girl sitting on a
low wall -1930

48. Marie Coca and her
Daughter

49. The Bath, 1905

50. A strikingly beautiful
girl, she found work
as an artists' model
and used the
opportunity to
observe and learn
the artists'
techniques. She
modeled for such
greats as Edgar
Degas, Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec,
Pierre-Auguste
Renoir
and Pierre Puvis
de Chavannes, all
of whom would
have an affair with
her. She haunted
the sleazy bars of
Paris with the men
and in 1889
Toulouse-Lautrec
would paint a
famous portrait of
her titled: "The
Hangover” (La
Buveuse).

51. Toulouse Lautrec, The Drinker c. 1888

52. Toulouse Lautrec, La Buveuse 1889

53. Pierre Renoir – Umbrellas.
Model: Suzanne Valadon

54. Renoir, Girl Braiding
Her Hair

55. Renoir,
Danse à
Bougival
Steinlen,
Portrait of
Suzanne
Valadon

57. Renoir, Portrait

58. Suzanne
Valadon by
Henri de
Toulouse-
Lautrec. 1886-
87

59. Toulouse Lautrec,
The Laundry Worker

60. Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre
(1824-98) Untitled painting of
Suzanne Valadon 1880

61. Amedeo
Modigliani, “Portrait
de Suzanne
Valadon”

62. Marcel Leprin (1891-1933) Suzanne
Valadon and her Cat

63. T-A Steinlen, Portrait de Suzanne Valadon
,
T-A Steinlen, Suzanne Valadon (vue en
contre-plongée), 1896.

64. André Utter, Suzanne
Valadon Combing
Herself

65. Utrillo, Portrait of Suzanne Valadon

66. In 1890 she became
friends with painter Edgar
Degas. After seeing
some of Valadon's work,
Degas encouraged her
efforts to become an
artist, buying some of her
pieces and helping her
get her career started.
Due to encouragement
from Degas, in 1894
Valadon became the first
woman to show at the
Société Nationale des
Beaux-Arts, a major
French artistic
accomplishment.
Edgar Degas -Le Tab model Suzanne Valadon

67. the character of
Suzanne Rouvier in
Somerset
Maugham’s The
Razor’s Edge.
When she died ,
many notables from
the Parisian art
community came to
her funeral,
including Pablo
Picasso, Georges
Braque and André
Derain. Suzanne
was buried in Paris.
Suzanne Valadon
died in 1938. Her art
continues to generate
interest as time
passes and is
significantly
represented in
collections of The
Cleveland Museum of
Art, The Art Institute
of Chicago, The
National Museum of
Women in the Arts
and Paris’ Centre
Pompidou. The
intensity of Suzanne’s
palette
matched the passion
of her actions and
emotions, just like her
ability to go from
model to peer among
painters reflected her
self-determination
and resilience. Her
free-spirited ways
have inspired novels,
biographies and films,
and she was even the
,likely basis for

68. Self portrait
« Que des hommes
m’aient aimée, soit.
Mais je veux être aimée
des hommes qui ne
m’auront jamais vue, qui
demeureront à rêver et
à m’imaginer devant un
carré de toile où, avec
mes couleurs, j’aurai
laissée un peu de mon
âme »
Suzanne Valadon

69. 1/28/2012