An Artist Who Inspires- Suzanne Valadon

On my social media I often share posts about other artists who inspire me. I have decided to start a blog post series based on the same thing. Here is the first installment.

An Artist Who Inspires- Suzanne Valadon

Suzanne Valadon has what might be the coolest biography anyone could hope for.
She was born named Marie-Clémentine Valadon in Montmartre district of Paris. 

What is Montmartre? The site of the famous Moulin Rouge, and an incubator of art and culture. A partial list of artists who hung out there over the years include Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, van Gogh, Raoul Dufy, Picasso, Les Nabis (Vuillard, Bonnard), Matisse, André Derain, and later Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and Django Reinhardt.
And yes, she was born there! 

She was very poor, and her father is unknown. She quit school at age 11 and by age 15 was an acrobat at the famous Cirque Fernando. An acrobat!

Paintings of the Cirque by Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas

But very soon after she started, she fell from a Trapeze, injuring her back, and that was the end of that. 

She started modeling for artists, such as Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec. During this time, she gained the nickname "Suzanne" after the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders (a story where dirty old men spy on a naked young woman). 

Paintings of Suzanne Valadon by Toulouse-Lautrec

Valadon by Renoir- him, being Renoir, may have idealized her just a bit.

 While observing her artist employers, she began to teach herself how to draw, and then paint. Degas, in particular, encouraged her and bought her work. She became an accomplished and respected artist. 

Etude de Chat by Suzanne Valadon

Valadon’s work seems to be mostly post-impressionism, but she really stood out because of the subjects she was willing to handle. 

Most female painters at that time, such as Cassatt and Morisot confined themselves to landscape, still life, and domestic scenes involving children and women. Valadon painted all these subjects, as well...  but she also did nudes.

Reclining Nude by Suzanne Valadon

 Nudes nudes nudes. She did nude women, but did not idealize their bodies.

The Blue Room by Suzanne Valadon

She did self portraits and recorded her aging face.

Self portraits by Suzanne Valadon

 She drew her son as he bathed or slept.

My Son Utrillo by Suzanne Valadon

 And she painted nude men, unheard of at that time, and one of the first and few examples of a man being seen through the “female gaze”.

Casting the Net by Valadon- model is her husband Andre Utter

At 18, Valadon had a son who also became a famous painter, Maurice Utrillo. She married twice, once to a wealthy banker, and then to a man 21 years younger than she, Andre Utter. She died of a stroke in 1938 at age 72.
To top off the world’s coolest biography, she also has a crater on Venus named after her. And an asteroid.
How cool is that?

Feminism vs. The Femme Fatale

March is Women's History month, and March 8th is International Women's Day.
As part of my blog series talking about Film Noir and how I use it as a source for my art, I have been pondering Noir through the lens of how I relate to it as a female artist.
Part of the enduring fascination we have with Noir is the inclusion of powerful female characters. The zenith of Film Noir was from the 1930’s-1950’s a time of extraordinary change for women, particularly during WWII, when they took up jobs vacated by men who were off at war. The war, plus the changing role of women in society, created nationwide anxiety, much like the anxiety evidenced in our own times.
However, with some exceptions, the classic femme fatale of those times was not a feminist figure. She does not seek to break down the patriarchal system so much as she attempts to use her sexual power to win within it. The Madonna/Whore dichotomy is well in place in most of these movies. My use of the femme fatal in my art is an expression of my struggles with attempts at finding my own voice, independent of the men around me.
Nevertheless, the femme fatale is a challenge to the system, and an early and exciting example of women in power.
In my artwork, I focus on complex human relationships with delightfully ambiguous situations. In them I give my female figures an identity of their own and an interior life. In “Backlight” there is a large, looming man in the foreground, looking back at the woman on display, perhaps a classic depiction of the dominant male and the female object. Or is it? Through this traditional lens a different picture is shown. She stands resolute and firm, her steady gaze back at him makes him appear unsteady and unsure, and perhaps like he is trying to slip away.

"Backlight" Leslie Peterson Sapp, 38"x48" Acrylic on panel. 

I will be writing more about the psychological appeal of Film Noir in upcoming posts. Look out for "A Brief Primer on Film Noir - Part Two: Drama, Intrigue and Heartbreak"