"The Rose in the Mirror," Suzanne Valadon, 1909.
Valadon (1865-1938) was the first woman admitted to Paris' Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She never really stuck to one particular school, and is commonly classed as Post-Impressionist or Symbolist. She also stirred controversy; she painted male nudes, then unheard of for a woman artist, and also painted non-idealized, realistic female nudes.
She modelled for Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec, briefly worked as a trapeze artist in a circus, and appears to have been self-taught when it came to painting. She bore a son out of wedlock, who later became the painter Maurice Utrillo; the identity of his father is unknown, thought to be either Renoir or Degas; her friend, painter Miguel Utrillo, signed the certificate, becoming his legal parent, purportedly quipping that he'd be happy to sign his name to the work of Renoir or Degas.
She was an acclaimed artist, lived a sultry life full of incident (an affair with composer Erik Satie, for instance, or leaving her husband for a friend of her son's), and is still respected and admired today.
Happy Flower Friday!
From a private collection.
