Suzanne Valadon, (1865-1938) born  Marie-Clémentine Valadon, was unique: as a woman and an artist. She was the illegitimate daughter of a seamstress who earned her living as an acrobat and model.  Her natural talent as an artist was spotted when she was a model for Toulouse-Lautrec who alongside Degas became a  friend  and lifelong supporter.

June Rose, in this biography, has captured not just the art of Suzanne but her battle to be taken seriously as a working- class woman and as an artist by the art world. She had no formal training and she was looked down upon because of her poor background and unconventional behaviour.

 June shows how Suzanne used her painting to express her own joy and sorrow about her life. Her great belief in humanity is shown in her paintings and drawings. With little money she used her mother and servants as life models. She was also unique as a  woman artist who painted nudes. Throughout her life she painted herself in the nude – one when she was aged 65 – again challenging society’s views of older women- that even today would be seen as controversial.

At the age of 18 she gave birth to her son Maurice who also went onto become a famous if troubled  artist. He was illegitimate and like Suzanne was brought up by her mother who lived with them all her life.  

In 1894 against all odds five of her drawings were exhibited in the prestigious Société National des Beaux-Arts. The ones chosen reflected her life; 3 studies of children and two of her mother and son.

In 1885 she tried respectability by marrying a stockbroker Paul Mousis and lived with him for 13 years. She could now give up work and concentrate on her art. Her paintings expressed this new life with ones of her husband, her child and even her maids.

In 1909 she met Andres Utter another artist, twenty- one years her junior, who became the love of her life. She married him in 1914. They stayed together until 1934 when they divorced but maintained a lifelong relationship.

This is a compelling and heartfelt story of a woman determined to live her  life on her terms. We glimpse this  through her letters and other personal documents as well as her paintings and drawings. June has produced an astounding biography of an important woman and artist.

By the late 1920s Suzanne said about her art “For me painting is inseparable from life. I paint with the same obstinacy that I use, less vigorously, in my daily existence.”

First published in 1998 I bought my copy from https://www.abebooks.co.uk/

I found out about Suzanne in Jennifer Higgie’s wonderful book The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resistance: 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits. My copy was obtained from my local library in Greater Manchester.