**Suzanne VALADON (1865-1938) [FRANCE] - Lot 19

**Suzanne VALADON (1865-1938) [FRANCE] Still life, 1920 Oil on cardboard. Signed and dated upper left. 50 x 64 cm Bibliography Paul Pétridès, Suzanne VALADON, L'œuvre Complet, Catalogue Raisonné, Compagnie française des Arts Graphiques, 1971, number P253 (reproduced in black and white), description on page 317. ** This lot belongs to a co-organizer of the sale. A major Suzanne Valadon exhibition is being prepared at the Musée National d'Art Moderne-Centre Georges Pompidou in early 2025. It will follow on from the two exhibitions in Metz and Nantes (2023-2024). The latter highlighted his exceptional talent and the relevance of a figurative approach in the midst of the avant-gardes of the early 20th century. The way Suzanne Valadon's art is viewed and judged has often been obscured by her picturesque private life, the anecdotal label of Montmartre painter, and her difficult relationship with her son, the painter Maurice Utrillo. Suzanne's artistic emergence was as much due to her genius as to her courage. At the end of the 19th century women did not have access to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Suzanne, however, was one of the first women admitted to the Société nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894. Daughter of a linen maid, she began as an acrobat and occasional prostitute. workshops as a model (Renoir and Puvis de Chavannes) encouraged her to paint. She was noticed by Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas (and became his favorite pupil). Suzanne Valadon exhibits for the first time at Galerie Le Barc de Boutteville in 1893 and 1894. Thanks to her marriage and the support of gallery owner Berthe Weil, she acquired independence and financial security. Suzanne Valadon and still life Suzanne Valadon continued the long tradition of representing "still life". This genre, independent since the the 17th century, aims to represent the things of everyday life, but to endow them with a spirit and meaning meaning, even if they are inanimate. In our painting, the compositional space is, as usual, heavily filled: bowls of fruit, a basket of cut flowers on an African kuba cloth, stand out against a dark background that we can only guess is a painting turned over against the studio wall. against the studio wall. * The fruits, with their clear value and formal fullness, their flesh painted in full paste, are the bravura piece. bravery. The subtly mastered imbalances of the composition, which give it life and dynamism, are derived from Cézanne: the first bowl of fruit, the second bowl of fruit, the third bowl of fruit, the fourth bowl of fruit. of Cézanne: the first bowl of fruit is seen from the front, the other from above; the stable, rectangular arrangement of objects rectangular arrangement of objects is thwarted by the edge of the fabric, which falls and tilts the whole towards the outside of the picture. of the picture. Valadon's art stems from Gauguin, for its intense chromaticism and concern for truth, as much as from Cézanne for its subtle play of mass. subtle play of mass. In the face of the multiple avant-gardes, Valadon's figuration remains valid: restitution of living matter fullness and robustness of form, a hymn to reality, Valadon's art testifies to her love of life and, in the words of poet and, in the words of poet Francis Ponge, his "parti pris des choses". *Kuba textiles from Central Africa were very much in vogue in the early 20s. Art dealers Louis Carré and Charles Ratton promoted them on the Paris market, and the painter Matisse collected them. Matisse collected them. This commentary is taken from the catalog of the exhibition "Suzanne Valadon" Centre Pompidou- Metz Metz from April 15 to September 11, 2023.