I was familiar with The Blue Room but not its painter, and I love the enigmatic face of The Reclining Nude. I read Jane Clatworthy’s thoughts and found them clarifying and also that I agree with her. Thank you Anne!
What a wonderful discovery! I love how brazen her work is and how she defied norms in her personal life too. Makes you wonder how different our perception of beauty and power would be if more woman had been encouraged to express themselves. I live in Paris and will definitely visit the museum in Montmartre now.
Two comments: I never heard of Suzanne Valadon, but I love The Blue Room. Stupendous! Also, the photo shows her with a VERY FAT CAT, and I love it! I do a lot of work with homeless animals, and it does my heart good to see that gorgeous Parisian kitty being taken care of so well.
I’d not heard of Suzanne Valadon. I really enjoyed your exploration of her work and barrier-breaking! After some research I learned she was one of small coterie of female artists represented by Parisian gallery owner/operator Berthe Weil, who also represented Emilie Charmy, whose life and work l am deeply interested in and am researching for. I love it when one thread pulled from history unspools another.
Hey, there was Note here yesterday re Sebastian Faulks analogy between painting and writing to introduce layers into a story.
I often turn to art as a helpmate to thinking and writing. I’m so pleased I chanced in this piece on Valadon and, particularly, her work on the male nude
Thank you for introducing me to this amazing artist, one I'd never heard of before. I love her piece, "The Blue Room." It symbolizes a woman completely at home in her body, and yes, defiantly not giving any f**ks.
Great post on an artist whom I coincidentally recently discovered, and whose revolutionary, female-gaze nudes I love. This book, which I gave as a gift to a friend, might be of interest: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526159830/
Fabulous. I didn't know this artist, and she is very fine. Thank you for the intro and for opening a question I hadn't considered: the male nude, especially as painted by a woman. I'm sorry she felt she had to hide the genitalia. Adam and Eve makes no sense as Eve reaches for the apple and Adam is already figged. I'll be reading more about Valadon. The old story: a woman's "morals" work against her, but a man's art remains the focus. Good work you're doing here.
Valadon does seem to have been one of the first to turn the female gaze on the male nude in her paintings. Thank you for including some of the paintings which exemplify the distinctive ways she painted female nudes. I am fascinated by the fact that she was able to exhibit these works at that time. It is a contrast to the experience of Jacqueline Livingston, a photographer, who was the first to turn the female gaze on the male nude in the 1970s. Her exhibition of photos of her husband and son at Cornell University led to her firing in 1978. She was one of the Cornell 8. Jackie, like Valadon, inverts the relationship between male dominance and female submission in her art. I'm going down the Giulina Lama rabbit hole.
Thank you for this — it was a revelation. Had never heard of Valadon or seen her work, and that first image of hers, the re-invented nude, is truly startling. The kind of transformation of a paradigm that seems so natural once one sees it (the transformation) but in fact brings a completely new way of thinking into the discussion. Great article and images both.
Anne, what a pleasure to wake up with this revelatory introduction to a neglected trailblazer. I particularly appreciated your discovery of Valadon’s male nudes. Thank you.
If only Valadon could be rediscovered as Morisot has been in uk. The Dulwich Gallery mounted a superb exhibition of BM last year.
I’m enjoying your posts. My Substack is about cultural trailblazers of 60s Britain. The latest is about the 18 year old who took 2 weeks off work, wrote a play and popped a bomb under British Theatre. She transformed drama. Px
I was familiar with The Blue Room but not its painter, and I love the enigmatic face of The Reclining Nude. I read Jane Clatworthy’s thoughts and found them clarifying and also that I agree with her. Thank you Anne!
What a wonderful discovery! I love how brazen her work is and how she defied norms in her personal life too. Makes you wonder how different our perception of beauty and power would be if more woman had been encouraged to express themselves. I live in Paris and will definitely visit the museum in Montmartre now.
Two comments: I never heard of Suzanne Valadon, but I love The Blue Room. Stupendous! Also, the photo shows her with a VERY FAT CAT, and I love it! I do a lot of work with homeless animals, and it does my heart good to see that gorgeous Parisian kitty being taken care of so well.
I’d not heard of Suzanne Valadon. I really enjoyed your exploration of her work and barrier-breaking! After some research I learned she was one of small coterie of female artists represented by Parisian gallery owner/operator Berthe Weil, who also represented Emilie Charmy, whose life and work l am deeply interested in and am researching for. I love it when one thread pulled from history unspools another.
Hey, there was Note here yesterday re Sebastian Faulks analogy between painting and writing to introduce layers into a story.
I often turn to art as a helpmate to thinking and writing. I’m so pleased I chanced in this piece on Valadon and, particularly, her work on the male nude
Thanks for this! What a pleasure to be reminded of Valdon’s work and to dwell in her world for a while.
Thank you for introducing me to this amazing artist, one I'd never heard of before. I love her piece, "The Blue Room." It symbolizes a woman completely at home in her body, and yes, defiantly not giving any f**ks.
Great post on an artist whom I coincidentally recently discovered, and whose revolutionary, female-gaze nudes I love. This book, which I gave as a gift to a friend, might be of interest: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526159830/
Fabulous. I didn't know this artist, and she is very fine. Thank you for the intro and for opening a question I hadn't considered: the male nude, especially as painted by a woman. I'm sorry she felt she had to hide the genitalia. Adam and Eve makes no sense as Eve reaches for the apple and Adam is already figged. I'll be reading more about Valadon. The old story: a woman's "morals" work against her, but a man's art remains the focus. Good work you're doing here.
Valadon does seem to have been one of the first to turn the female gaze on the male nude in her paintings. Thank you for including some of the paintings which exemplify the distinctive ways she painted female nudes. I am fascinated by the fact that she was able to exhibit these works at that time. It is a contrast to the experience of Jacqueline Livingston, a photographer, who was the first to turn the female gaze on the male nude in the 1970s. Her exhibition of photos of her husband and son at Cornell University led to her firing in 1978. She was one of the Cornell 8. Jackie, like Valadon, inverts the relationship between male dominance and female submission in her art. I'm going down the Giulina Lama rabbit hole.
Thank you for this — it was a revelation. Had never heard of Valadon or seen her work, and that first image of hers, the re-invented nude, is truly startling. The kind of transformation of a paradigm that seems so natural once one sees it (the transformation) but in fact brings a completely new way of thinking into the discussion. Great article and images both.
Anne, what a pleasure to wake up with this revelatory introduction to a neglected trailblazer. I particularly appreciated your discovery of Valadon’s male nudes. Thank you.
If only Valadon could be rediscovered as Morisot has been in uk. The Dulwich Gallery mounted a superb exhibition of BM last year.
I’m enjoying your posts. My Substack is about cultural trailblazers of 60s Britain. The latest is about the 18 year old who took 2 weeks off work, wrote a play and popped a bomb under British Theatre. She transformed drama. Px