As an alluring mysterious woman, Marie-Clementine Valadon, (Suzanne Valadon), had no problem finding work as an artists' model. She modeled for such great artists as Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, (Wikipedia), and used the opportunity to learn and behold different techniques of painting.
Born on September 23, in Haute-Vienne, France, Suzanne, an illegitimate child, moved with her mother to Paris and became a washer girl. Later she went to live in Montmartre and pursued her interest in art after a dreaded fall ended her career as a circus acrobat at age 15.
She spent most of her life in Montmartre where she was became a wonderful painter and contrary to most painters, received acclaim and some financial success during her lifetime. One of the painters that was impressed by her bold line drawings, fine paintings, and encouraged her aspiration, was Edgar Degas, a painter that she modeled for had had an affair with.
Woman at left is painter Suzanne Valadon
English: Photo of Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), pai...
Profile portrait of Suzanne Valadon, by Renoir."The Hangover"
Her paintings of still life's, floral art, and landscapes, and especially female nudes, were distinguished for their resonant coloring and brush techniques. Her most famous piece that was painted form the shabby bar scene, and was composed by one of her notorious lovers, Toulouse-Lautrec, who was a strong believer in Suzanne, was in titled: "The Hangover".
In the early 1890's, her first displays consisted of mainly portraits. A famous one being of a man she had an affair with, who had proposed marriage after their first intimate night, Erik Satie. It was the only intimate relationship that Erik ever had and after she left him brokenhearted he said, "nothing but an ice loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness" (Wikipedia). Suzanne was not very prosperous in her relations...