Suzanne Valadon

Life & Legacy

Marie-Clémentine "Suzanne" Valadon (French pronunciation: [syzan valadɔ̃]; 23 September 1865 – 7 April 1938) was a French painter who was born at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. 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, portraits of women, still lifes, and landscapes. She never attended the academy and was never confined within a set tradition or style of art. Despite not being confined to any tradition, she shocked the art world as the first woman painter to depict a male nude as well as less idealized images of women in comparison to those of her male counterparts.
She was a model for many renowned artists. Among them, Valadon appeared in such paintings as Dance at Bougival (1883) and Dance in the City by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1883), and Suzanne Valadon (1885) and The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) (1887–1889) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.