Suzanne Valadon

This retrospective brings the acclaimed and trailblazing, but nearly forgotten French modernist artist back into view

Suzanne Valadon. Joie de vivre, 1911. Oil on canvas, 122.9 x 205.7 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bequest of Mademoiselle Adélaïde Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967.

Centre Pompidou, Paris
15 January – 26 May 2025

by SABINE SCHERECK

Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) is making headlines this year. The French artist has never been quite out of sight in her native country, but it is only now that her achievement and position within art history are being truly recognised. The Centre Pompidou’s celebration of her work is attracting international attention and, for many, it is the first encounter with this convention-defying artist, whose style follows no art movement and whose illustrious bohemian life has the makings of a hit film.

Suzanne Valadon surrounded by two dogs, c1930. Photographic print. Centre Pompidou, Bibliothèque Kandinsky. Credit: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Philippe Migeat/ Dist. GrandPalaisRmn.

Valadon came from a humble background. She was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon near Limoges to an unmarried mother and an unknown father. Her mother, a laundress, moved to Montmartre when Valadon was five. From the age of 11 she had various odd jobs until, at 15, her dream of becoming a circus acrobat came true. When an accident put an early end to her career in the limelight, her beauty enabled her to turn to modelling. Montmartre was full of artists in need of models and she was popular: during the next 10 years, she featured in the works of Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Suzanne Valadon. Trois Nus (Three nudes), date unknown. Oil pencil on paper, 55 x 44 cm. Collection Galerie de la Présidence, Paris. Photo: © Galerie de la Présidence.

After a brief introduction, the exhibition starts off with Valadon’s emergence on the art scene as a model. Located on the sixth floor of the Centre Pompidou with a stunning view over the city’s rooftops, the exhibition gives the visitor the feeling of being in an artist’s bright, lofty studio. The acclaimed Parisian artists of her time mostly painted the headstrong young woman semi-nude or nude. La Grosse Marie (1884), a portrait of her by Toulouse-Lautrec, with whom she had an affair, shows her reclining naked in an armchair confronting the viewer with a curiously self-assertive look. Her work as a model informed her creative output. Having drawn since the age of nine, she could now watch the masters at work and develop her own skills. Her early style would bear their traces but, with its bold shapes, colours and lines, was also akin to the styles of Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne. However, most important is how she differs from her male counterparts. Her portraits, particularly her female nudes, are not undermined by a male gaze but radiate intimacy, unpretentiousness and a sense of shared female experience.

Suzanne Valadon. Portrait de Famille, 1912. Oil on canvas, 98 x 73.5 cm. Don M. Cahen-Salvador, 1976. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Christian Jean / Jean Popovitch.

Curated by Chiara Parisi, Xavier Re and Nathalie Ernoult, the show, with almost 200 works of paintings and rarely seen drawings, unfolds chronologically. It was Toulouse-Lautrec who prompted Valadon to adopt the name Suzanne, in reference to the biblical story of Susannah and the Elders, because she was often surrounded by older men. He also spotted her artistic talent and recommended her to the more established artist Edgar Degas, who further encouraged her and with whom she formed a lifelong friendship. Her first models were friends and members of the family as she was unable to afford to pay professional models. Her marriage to the stockbroker Paul Mousis in 1895 provided her with greater financial means. However, the only “family picture” on display that includes her, Portrait de Famille, dates from 1912, after she had divorced Mousis, and reflects her new, unconventional living arrangement. It shows her mother, herself, her son, whose father is unknown and predates her liaison with Mousis, and her son’s young friend, with whom she had an affair and would go on to marry, regardless of an age gap of more than 20 years.

Although the group freely followed their amicable and romantic feelings, the picture does not radiate harmony: the clothes are sombre, the background a biting yellow and poisonous green, seeming to materialise the tension between the figures into colour particles. The gathering of this troubled group feels forced. Valadon, in her late 40s, is standing in the middle, as if connecting the disparate characters. With an expression that elicits pity, she is the only one looking at the viewer. Her elderly mother, standing behind Valadon to the right, gazes melancholically, somehow lost, at a place outside the image. Behind Valadon to the left, is her lover, also looking into the distance and seeming somehow detached from it all. Her son, almost 30, is seated in front of them in the bottom right corner, resting his head on his hand, looking downwards, lost in thought, almost bored, as if being only reluctantly present. Valadon never aspired to produce flattering portraits, but aimed for reality and an unflinching truth.

Suzanne Valadon, Venus Noire (Black Venus), 1919. Oil on canvas, 160 x 60 cm. Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'art moderne. Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI / Philippe Midget / Dust. GrandPalaisRmn.

This set her apart. Other female artists of her time, such as Morisot and Mary Cassatt came from privileged backgrounds and had access to training, yet found it much harder to gain recognition as artists. They were faced with the conundrum that their “feminine” approach to painting with pretty colours and primarily domestic scenes was looked down on while, at the same time, their work was expected to please. Valadon, in contrast, coming from a poor background, did not have to conform to any societal norms as to what she was to paint and how. This included painting male nudes, seen as outrageous for a woman in her time. But she was fiercely independent and pursued her own norms and values. Her bold style, vibrant colours and strong outlines were associated with a “male brutality”, which led to Degas proclaiming: “You are one of us.” In 1894, she became the first woman to exhibit at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

This Portrait de Famille is placed close to her views of Montmartre in springtime, providing a sense of fresh air with its bright rejuvenating greens, soft pinks and blue skies as captured in Le Jardin de la Rue Cortot (The Garden on Rue Cortot) (1928) and Le Sacré-Coeur Vu du Jardin de la Rue Cortot (The Sacré-Coeur Seen from the Garden on Rue Cortot) (1916), the Rue Cortot being the street in which she had her studio. There is also L’Église de Saint-Bernard (The Church of St Bernard) (1929), which evokes a day in March when the trees have not yet blossomed, but the clear colours and fine composition give a sense of a world at peace. The church is located near a lake in the small town of Villefranche-sur-Saône, north of Lyon, where Valadon had bought a small chateau in 1923 after an unexpected financial windfall from the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.

Suzanne Valadon, Femme aux Bas Blancs (Woman in White Stockings), 1924. Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 60 cm. © Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy. Photo: Gilbert Mangin.

The 1920s also saw her reputation grow and brought commissions for portraits of those in the higher echelons of society. Yet, the displayed portraits in the section here are neither exclusively from that period nor from that class. Among them is the intriguing Femme à la Contrebasse (Woman with Double Bass) (1908): few women play the instrument, so it is a delight to see one, particularly during that period. The woman is in a homely setting and looking confident and happy playing her large musical instrument. There is no information, however, as to who she is and in what context the painting was made. Another striking image is Femme aux Bas Blancs (Woman in White Stockings) (1924), showing a mature woman seated in an armchair seemingly listening to someone outside the picture. She wears what appears to be a scarlet-red top, yet the white floral ornaments, the matching red shoes and white tights suggest that this is an outfit worn in public. Underneath her chair is an unwrapped bouquet of red roses. She could easily be a cabaret dancer in her dressing room during a break. Her expression, her sense of being at ease with herself and the narrative of the image are captivating. While many society portraits adopt the same arrangement of a woman in a chair holding something in her lap, there is one that defies that composition: the double portrait Les Dames Rivière (The Rivière Ladies) (1924). It is unclear what relationship bonds the women, who could be siblings. They are well-nourished, wear comfortable, loose, yet fine dresses; their jewellery marks their social standing. This picture emanates calmness, which seems to spring from the fact that this portrait was made by a woman giving it an unspoken sense of sisterhood. The style hints at the clear lines of art deco. Most of Valadon’s sitters were women, who seemed like her: strong, mature and self-assured.

In order to further position Valadon in the artistic circle of her time, the show also briefly points to the French artists Juliette Roche and Emilie Charmy, both presented through self portraits. In Autoportrait à Serrières (Self-Portrait in Serrières) (c1920), Roche presents herself in muted colours and hard lines as a modern woman of her time: young, slim, with cropped hair, a small hat and a necktie – far from any feminine allures. It is an enticement to learn more about her. Charmy’s self-portrait (c1923) is very much the opposite in style: it has an impressionistic touch, the lines are blurred, everything is just hinted at. All three women showcased their work at the Paris gallery of Berthe Weill, who championed female artists. Charmy and Valadon became close friends, while it is unclear if Roche and Valadon ever met.

Valadon produced many self-portraits, but one is very poignant: the poster for L’Aide Amicale aux Artistes, Bal de l’AAAA, Gymnase Municipal (Friendly Aid to Artists, AAAA Ball, Municipal Gymnasium) (1927). She created the poster for a charity ball of the l’Aide Amicale Aux Artistes, an association to help artists in need. It shows a young naked female model from the back, which alludes to Valadon’s own experience as a model. She holds a colour pallet with paintbrushes in one hand and paints flowers with the other, referencing an artistic period when she took to painting bouquets of flowers. During that time, her range of motifs had extended to still lives and landscapes, which she loved. This joy is visible in the bright uplifting colours such as in Le Cour du Château de Saint Bernard (The Courtyard of the Château de Saint Bernard) (1930).

Suzanne Valadon, Le Bain, 1908. Charcoal and pastel on paper, 60 x 49 cm. Paris, Centre national des arts plastiques. Photo: © Ville de Grenoble / Musée de Grenoble, JL Lacroix.

In this showcase of Valadon’s work, two sections dominate: her nudes and her drawings, although the drawings depict nudes too. They lovingly capture personal everyday moments such as taking a bath or going for a swim. They enchant through their liveliness, tenderness and care between the women, as often the scenes show two or more together, either young women or an elderly woman taking care of a young girl. The paintings are of a different nature. The women seem older, usually only one is depicted on the canvas and the situation is much more posed, their bodies shown as they were. There are so many of these images that it becomes repetitive, yet it stresses Valadon’s enormous output, which consists of about 500 paintings and 300 works on paper.

Suzanne Valadon, La Chambre Bleue (The Blue Room), 1923. Oil on canvas, 90 x 116 cm (35 x 46 in). Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris. Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI / Jacqueline Hyde/Dist. GrandPalaisRmn.

Among this large body of work is La Chambre Bleue (The Blue Room) (1923), a key piece that encapsulates her pioneering approach to portraiture and subverts traditional genres to present strong, modern women. It shows a mature woman lounging on a bed, propping herself up on an arm. At the time, it was a setting usually featuring nudes or ladies from a harem for men to admire. Yet, this woman has no intention of fulfilling a man’s desire. She is wearing a casual top and striped pyjama bottoms. Next to her lie books and she is looking pensively into the distance. It feels like the Sunday morning of a woman leading a self-determined life, a rarity during that period. Valadon was nearly 60 when she painted this image. It is not classified as a self-portrait yet it very much reflects her way of being. The importance of the image is underlined by the fact that it serves as the cover of the catalogue of the exhibition and it is placed at the entrance of the show. However, its significance only becomes clear at the end, when having gained an insight into the life and work of this trailblazing woman. This exhibition is an important step to rightly lift her back to the artists’ Olympus inhabited by her male contemporaries.