Suzanne Valadon

This lavish catalogue will accompany the first exhibition at a major American venue of the French model and painter Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938). Despite the popularity and success Valadon enjoyed in her lifetime, her work has been neglected since her death. Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel reconsiders the life and legacy of the revolutionary artist.
From a childhood marked by poverty and neglect, Suzanne Valadon defied the odds
to become a successful painter of the Parisian avant-garde. Passionate about art from an early age, she became a popular artist’s model at fifteen, posing for Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Auguste Renoir, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, among many others. Edgar Degas encouraged her earliest artistic efforts, praising the use of line in her drawings and introducing her to printmaking techniques.
Valadon was the first self-taught woman artist to exhibit at the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Later, when she turned to painting, she showed regularly at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne. She made a living from her art at a time when it when women faced countless obstacles to professional success. Despite these accomplishments, her work has received scant attention outside of France. The Barnes Foundation is the first US institution to dedicate an exhibition to Valadon, introducing American audiences to her work and story.
With her art and lifestyle alike, Valadon challenged behavioral codes. She cared
little for convention, and in middle age left her marriage in favor of a relationship with the artist André Utter, more than twenty years her junior. While she broke new ground with her portraits and nudes, her reception was often overshadowed by criticism of her personal life, and her fame as an artist was eclipsed by that of her son, Maurice Utrillo.
This catalogue looks beyond the gossip and scandals to focus on the unique role Valadon
played within the Parisian art world. Seen in the twenty-first century, Valadon’s confrontational and witty works still
challenge viewers with their unapologetic presentations of women’s bodies, female
desire, and the conflicts of marriage and motherhood. Always faithful to fi gurative
representation, she refused to follow artistic trends, developing a distinctive pictorial
language characterized by decisive lines and bold coloration.
This fully illustrated exhibition catalogue explores the new ways of looking presented
in the exhibition. Contributions by Nancy Ireson, Martha Lucy, Denise Murrell, Adrienne
L. Childs, and Lauren Jimerson tackle the artist’s treatment of the female figure, her
navigation of the art world, and her depictions of an as-yet-unidentified Black model. British artist Lisa Brice reflects on her interest in the painter, finding resonance between Valadon’s pioneering work and contemporary artists and events. A chronology by Marianne Le Morvan presents a fascinating overview of the artist’s turbulent life.