At the time, French art critic George Besson called her “the most justifiably famous” woman painter of the era, according to Hewitt, while another critic predicted that her “place in the history of 20th-century painting is already assured.”īut history can be fickle, and Valadon’s fame dimmed following her death, perhaps because she was never associated with a particular art movement, or because she was overshadowed by her male peers. In 1938, after a lauded retrospective at Galerie Bernier in Paris, she died at the age of 72 after suffering a stroke. In the last decade of her career, Valadon exhibited worldwide, with shows in New York, Prague, Chicago and Berlin. Valadon painted self-portraits as she aged, eschewing idealized views of herself. “(There’s) a refusal of prettiness there … And an attention (to) the artifice of beautifying yourself, and then this very unflinching representation of her body as it changes.” “One of the things that’s quite striking when you look at her self-portraits is her attitude to aging,” said Ireson. In her later self-portraits, she shows herself solemn, her mouth pursed, favoring hard edges and dark, neutral tones over the softer, brighter scenes of her earlier works. Valadon also chronicled her own body as she aged, painting herself nude well into her 60s – which, Ireson pointed out, would still “raise a few eyebrows” today. “Strength, Suzanne suggested, was compatible with and even complementary to the idea of ‘woman,’” wrote Hewitt of the work. Caught mid-thought, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, she pays little attention to the viewer, emanating confidence through her casual ease. In 1923, in her late 50s, Valadon painted her most notable work, “The Blue Room,” depicting a curvy brunette reclining among the patterned blue sheets and curtains of a daybed, a stack of books at her feet. Valadon's sensual depictions of the male body were daring, like in 1914's "Casting the Net." Suzanne Valadon French critic André Warnod described her nudes as “powerful,” according to Hewitt, and observed that they “enchant the viewer by virtue of the truth that emanates from them.” She was mentioned on the front page of French newspaper Le Gaulois, and critics took notice of her 1921 show at John Levy Gallery in Paris. In the 1920s, Valadon began receiving critical acclaim. In 1909, her painting “Summer” was accepted into the new and trendy Salon d’Automne, followed by her first solo show in 1911. She began to paint prolifically, making studies of herself and her family, as well as the nudes she became known for. Though Degas continued to submit Valadon’s work to exhibitions, she wouldn’t give her full attention to her art career again until she was 45 years old, after she left her husband for the younger artist André Utter. Pictured: "Woman in White Stockings," 1924. In Valadon's first showing at the prestigious Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894, for a series of drawings, her listed name, "Valadon, S.," did not reveal her gender. She often put her energy into Maurice’s artistic talent, hoping that a painting practice would ease his troubles. Further complicating her life were her son Maurice’s troubles in school, and his growing alcohol addiction, which first took hold when he was a teenager. But when she married businessman Paul Mousis and moved out of Paris, her artistic output slowed. Through her early exhibitions, Valadon caught the interest of major art dealers. But in the catalog, she was listed as the androgynous “Valadon, S.” In each, her subjects were depicted as moody and natural, unlike other domestic scenes of the time. Valadon had five drawings of children accepted. “For an untrained, lower-class woman artist to have her work accepted – it was outlandish, unthinkable, impossible,” Hewitt wrote. When Valadon first began receiving attention for her work in her late 20s, Degas suggested she show at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894. Sepia Times/Universal Images Group Editorial/Getty Images Valadon's time as a model made her particularly intuitive in how to paint the body.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |