Suzanne Valadon
Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Francia, 1865 - Parigi, Francia, 1938
Nel 1931 Suzanne Valadon aderisce ad una delle prime organizzazioni di donne pittrici, la FAM (Fédération des Femmes Artistes Modernes, 1931-1938) fondata da Marie-Anne Camax-Zoegger, la quale, nel 1936, commissionerà alla Valadon il ritratto della figlia Geneviève.
Between 1865 and 1870 he arrived in Paris with his mother, settling first in the Bastille area, then at the Butte, the hill of Montmartre. Until 1876 she studied in a religious school, worked occasionally and was already passionate about drawing. At fifteen, to earn some money, he poses for numerous artists: Puvis de Chavannes (Le bois sacré), Renoir (La Danse à la ville; Les grandes baigneuses), Toulouse Lautrec (La Buveuse ou Gueule de bois), Forain, Steinlen, just to name a few. This is how he learns the art of painting.
In 1883 Maurice was born, his son, recognized only in 1891 by the Spanish Miguel Utrillo y Morlius, painter and biographer of El Greco.
His first known work is Self-Portrait, a pastel executed in the year of his son’s birth. Between 1884 and 1890 he made numerous drawings using various techniques (pencil, pastel, sanguine) whose style already denoted an accentuated firmness of stroke. Degas, who greatly appreciates the talent of Valadon and calls her "the terrible Maria", keeps some drawings. In 1894 she bought one of the five works that she exhibited at the Salon de la Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts (to which, it must be noted, she was the only woman to be admitted).
Around 1893 Valadon has a tumultuous relationship with the musician Erik Satie, pianist at the Chat Noir, of which we have a beautiful portrait.
In 1896 she married the stockbroker Paul Mousis and lived between Paris and Montmagny, but the middle-class life was not for her, she was too independent and rebellious to give up attending the bohemia of Montmartre.
It was between 1903 and 1908 that Suzanne made her first oil paintings: large female nudes placed in sober interiors. His real teacher is Degas, from whom he takes up some themes: women in the toilet, nudes and interior scenes. Suzanne prefers the morphological observation of the female body, which she paints in a sculptural way. In 1909 he met the young painter André Utter, a friend of his son Maurice, and in 1911 he officially separated from Mousis to live with Utter.
He moved to the old atelier of Emile Bernard, No. 12 Rue Cortot. In the meantime he exhibited in group exhibitions, including: Salon des Indépendants, Salon d'Automne (of which he became a member in 1920), "Utrillo, Valadon, Utter" (1920, Galerie Bernheim Jeune) and held solo exhibitions in the most important Parisian galleries (including: Clovis Sagot, Berthe Weil, Bernier, Le Portique, Georges Petit).
In the years between 1918 and 1938 he introduced other themes, scenes with more characters, landscapes, still lifes. In 1924 she signed a contract with the important Galerie Bernheim Jeune, which guaranteed her an excellent income. In 1931 he performed his last self-portrait: Self-portrait with bare breasts, in which the artist is represented undressed, with the skin of the body withered and eyes absent.
In some works the "cloisonnist" influence of the School of Pont-Aven can be perceived, an effect undoubtedly accentuated by the constant use of the dark outline and the use of contrasting colours.
In 1931 she joined one of the first organizations of women painters, the FAM (Fédération des Femmes Artistes Modernes, 1931-1938) founded by Marie-Anne Camax-Zoegger, who, in 1936, commissioned Valadon to paint her daughter Geneviève.
Suzanne Valadon remains one of the most eccentric characters of the Butte, although her unconventional ways have never really scandalized the inhabitants of the area, accustomed to the habits and customs of the artists. The situation is different when living in the small village of Montmagny. What is surprising is his masculine behavior as well as his way of painting.
Valadon depicts the misery of young women of his time without mercy and devotes himself to male nudes like no other woman did. Suzanne had a spontaneity that escaped any school teaching and that derived exclusively from her personal instincts.
Museums:
Albi (Musée Toulouse-Lautrec); Besançon (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Cambrai (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Limoges (Musée De l'Evêché); Lyon (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Monte-Carlo; Nancy (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Paris (Musée National d'Art moderne, Musée de Montée, Palais du Tits); Paris (Musée; Sannois (Musée Maurice Utrillo) - France; Washington D.C. (The National Museum of Women in the Arts); New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) - United States; Algiers, Algeria; Belgrade, Serbia; Bern (Kunstmuseum), Switzerland; Cologne (Raf-Richartz Wallmus. ), Germany; Geneva (Pétit Palais), Switzerland; Prague, Czech Republic
Bibliography:
Il collezionista d’arte moderna, Torino, Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1963; J. Warnod, Suzanne Valadon, Bonfini, Naefels, CH, 1981; D. Marchesseau, Suzanne Valadon (Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 26.1-2.5.1996); J. Brade, Suzanne Valadon, Von Modell in Montmartre zur Malerin der Klassichen Moderne, Belser Verlag, Stuttgart, Zurich, 1994; Da Renoir a Picasso, un secolo d’arte al Petit Palais di Ginevra, a cura di P. Gribaudo, Milano, Electa, 2001; Da Puvis de Chavannes a Matisse e Picasso, Verso l’arte moderna, a cura di S. Lemoine, Bompiani, 2002; Da Caillebotte a Picasso, I capolavori della collezione Oscar Ghez dal Museo del Petit Palais di Ginevra a cura di L. Caramel, N. Sainte Fare Garnot, G. Gentry, Milano, Mazzotta, 2003; Valadon – Utrillo, Au tournant du siècle à Montmartre, de l’impressionisme à l’Ecole de Paris, Parigi, 2009, Editions Pinacotheque de Paris.
In 1883 Maurice was born, his son, recognized only in 1891 by the Spanish Miguel Utrillo y Morlius, painter and biographer of El Greco.
His first known work is Self-Portrait, a pastel executed in the year of his son’s birth. Between 1884 and 1890 he made numerous drawings using various techniques (pencil, pastel, sanguine) whose style already denoted an accentuated firmness of stroke. Degas, who greatly appreciates the talent of Valadon and calls her "the terrible Maria", keeps some drawings. In 1894 she bought one of the five works that she exhibited at the Salon de la Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts (to which, it must be noted, she was the only woman to be admitted).
Around 1893 Valadon has a tumultuous relationship with the musician Erik Satie, pianist at the Chat Noir, of which we have a beautiful portrait.
In 1896 she married the stockbroker Paul Mousis and lived between Paris and Montmagny, but the middle-class life was not for her, she was too independent and rebellious to give up attending the bohemia of Montmartre.
It was between 1903 and 1908 that Suzanne made her first oil paintings: large female nudes placed in sober interiors. His real teacher is Degas, from whom he takes up some themes: women in the toilet, nudes and interior scenes. Suzanne prefers the morphological observation of the female body, which she paints in a sculptural way. In 1909 he met the young painter André Utter, a friend of his son Maurice, and in 1911 he officially separated from Mousis to live with Utter.
He moved to the old atelier of Emile Bernard, No. 12 Rue Cortot. In the meantime he exhibited in group exhibitions, including: Salon des Indépendants, Salon d'Automne (of which he became a member in 1920), "Utrillo, Valadon, Utter" (1920, Galerie Bernheim Jeune) and held solo exhibitions in the most important Parisian galleries (including: Clovis Sagot, Berthe Weil, Bernier, Le Portique, Georges Petit).
In the years between 1918 and 1938 he introduced other themes, scenes with more characters, landscapes, still lifes. In 1924 she signed a contract with the important Galerie Bernheim Jeune, which guaranteed her an excellent income. In 1931 he performed his last self-portrait: Self-portrait with bare breasts, in which the artist is represented undressed, with the skin of the body withered and eyes absent.
In some works the "cloisonnist" influence of the School of Pont-Aven can be perceived, an effect undoubtedly accentuated by the constant use of the dark outline and the use of contrasting colours.
In 1931 she joined one of the first organizations of women painters, the FAM (Fédération des Femmes Artistes Modernes, 1931-1938) founded by Marie-Anne Camax-Zoegger, who, in 1936, commissioned Valadon to paint her daughter Geneviève.
Suzanne Valadon remains one of the most eccentric characters of the Butte, although her unconventional ways have never really scandalized the inhabitants of the area, accustomed to the habits and customs of the artists. The situation is different when living in the small village of Montmagny. What is surprising is his masculine behavior as well as his way of painting.
Valadon depicts the misery of young women of his time without mercy and devotes himself to male nudes like no other woman did. Suzanne had a spontaneity that escaped any school teaching and that derived exclusively from her personal instincts.
Museums:
Albi (Musée Toulouse-Lautrec); Besançon (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Cambrai (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Limoges (Musée De l'Evêché); Lyon (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Monte-Carlo; Nancy (Musée des Beaux-Arts); Paris (Musée National d'Art moderne, Musée de Montée, Palais du Tits); Paris (Musée; Sannois (Musée Maurice Utrillo) - France; Washington D.C. (The National Museum of Women in the Arts); New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) - United States; Algiers, Algeria; Belgrade, Serbia; Bern (Kunstmuseum), Switzerland; Cologne (Raf-Richartz Wallmus. ), Germany; Geneva (Pétit Palais), Switzerland; Prague, Czech Republic
Bibliography:
Il collezionista d’arte moderna, Torino, Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1963; J. Warnod, Suzanne Valadon, Bonfini, Naefels, CH, 1981; D. Marchesseau, Suzanne Valadon (Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 26.1-2.5.1996); J. Brade, Suzanne Valadon, Von Modell in Montmartre zur Malerin der Klassichen Moderne, Belser Verlag, Stuttgart, Zurich, 1994; Da Renoir a Picasso, un secolo d’arte al Petit Palais di Ginevra, a cura di P. Gribaudo, Milano, Electa, 2001; Da Puvis de Chavannes a Matisse e Picasso, Verso l’arte moderna, a cura di S. Lemoine, Bompiani, 2002; Da Caillebotte a Picasso, I capolavori della collezione Oscar Ghez dal Museo del Petit Palais di Ginevra a cura di L. Caramel, N. Sainte Fare Garnot, G. Gentry, Milano, Mazzotta, 2003; Valadon – Utrillo, Au tournant du siècle à Montmartre, de l’impressionisme à l’Ecole de Paris, Parigi, 2009, Editions Pinacotheque de Paris.
