Wonderful Suzanne Valadon

Edgar Degas called her the Terrible Mary for her strong character, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec nicknamed her Suzanne at the age of 19, in reference to the biblical myth of Susanna and the elderly: “You, who always pose naked for the elderly, should be called Suzanne.” Thereafter, the woman born Marie-Clémentine, queen of Montmartre and the most celebrated, radical, and free artist of the Belle Époque, would sign her paintings as Suzanne Valadon. Her funeral in 1938 was attended by Picasso, Braque, and the most prominent painters of the time. After her death Valadon fell into a most unjust oblivion despite leaving behind an extraordinary legacy of some 500 canvases and 300 works on paper. That is changing: she was recently identified as one of the greatest French painters of all time such that her reputation and prices are on the rise. This was as a result of major retrospective dedicated to Valadon that opened in January of 2025 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, following a first iteration at Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2023. There is a certificate verso from the Direction Des Musees Nationaux identifying this particular work as a Valadon.