page_title: Suzanne Valadon
section_title: Artist
hierarchical_section_title: Suzanne Valadon / Artist
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Suzanne Valadon, Le Lancement du filet, huile sur toile, 1914, Musée des beaux-arts de Nancy
context_page_description: Suzanne Valadon was a French painter and artists' model who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.
  Valadon spent nearly 40 years of her life as an artist. The subjects of her drawings and paintings, such as Joy of Life, included mostly female nudes, female portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. She never attended the academy and was never confined within a tradition.
  As a model Valadon appeared in such paintings as Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 1883 Dance at Bougival and Dance in the City, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's 1885 portrait.
context_section_description: Valadon began painting full-time in 1896. She painted still lifes, portraits, flowers, and landscapes that are noted for their strong composition and vibrant colors. She was, however, best known for her candid female nudes that depict women's bodies from a woman's perspective. Her work attracted attention partly because, as a woman painting unidealized nudes, she upset the social norms of the time.
  Valadon's earliest surviving signed and dated work is a self-portrait from 1883, drawn in charcoal and pastel. She produced mostly drawings between 1883 and 1893, and began painting in 1892. Her first models were family members, especially her son, mother, and niece. Her earliest known female nude was executed in 1892. In 1895, the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel exhibited a group of twelve etchings by Valadon that show women in various stages of their toilettes. Later, she regularly showed at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris. Valadon's first time in the Salon de la Nationale was in 1894. She also exhibited in the Salon d'Automne from 1909, Salon des Independants from 1911; Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes, 1933-1938. Degas was notably the first person to buy drawings from her, and he also introduced her to other collectors, including Paul Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. Degas also taught her the skill of soft-ground etching.
  In 1896, Valadon became a full-time painter after her marriage to the well-to-do banker Paul Mousis. She made a shift from drawing to painting starting in 1909. Her first large oils for the Salon related to sexual pleasure, and they were some of the first examples in painting for the man to be an object of desire by a woman. These notable Salon paintings include Adam and Eve (Adam et Eve) (1909), Joy of Life (La Joie de vivre) (1911), and Casting the Net (Lancement du filet) (1914). In her lifetime, Valadon produced around 273 drawings, 478 paintings, and 31 etchings, excluding pieces given away or destroyed.
  Valadon was well known during her lifetime, especially towards the end of her career. Her works are in the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Grenoble, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others.
caption: Casting the Net (1914), Museum of Fine Arts Nancy
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