Suzanne Valadon Art

Suzanne Valadon (Born 1865) was an illegitimate daughter of a laundress from France. She was born near Limoges at Bessines-sur-Gartempe. Suzanne started supporting herself from an early age. In fact she could do any king of job that was available. From the age of 9 to the age of 16, she worked a circus acrobat. She only stopped when she fell off the trapeze and started looking for a safer occupation. She decided to become an artists' model. Her work involved posing for other artists and she was engaged by artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. In cabarets of Montmartre and the clubs, she also mingled with the Impressionists because her provocative stunts caused sensations. Her art attracted as much attention as did her personal life. Suzanne had affairs with the composer Erik Satie, the painter Puvis de Chavannes, the painter Renoir; all these were well known. At 18 she gave birth to a son (illegitimate), the future artist Utrillo Maurice. Suzanne soon took interest in painting. She decided to teach herself by observing carefully the techniques and styles of the artists for whom she was posing. Soon she began creating her own paintings. Her art doesn’t look as those done by a self-taught artist. The framed Suzanne Valadon art hang on the walls of many building around the world. She got married to banker Paul Moussis and they lived for 14 years before she fell in love with artist André Utter, who was 21 years younger than herself. She was about 50 years old when she married Utter.