Suzanne Valadon

Suzanne Valadon, Portrait d'Eric Satie, 1892-93.



Erik Satie, Gymnopedie 1


Valadon's class, manifested in her bohemian lifstyle, also encouraged some writers to characterize her as the embodiment of the primitive. As we have seen, primitivism was a familiar category for veilling class status to which both artists and critics could refer in their production of or response to the female nude. Critics spoke of Valadon's wildness and her promiscuity and found corresponding "primitive" characteristics in her art as well. Storm, for example, described her work as «[s]avage and extremely personal, unconneted with any 'school'of the past or present, ...It is primitive, strong, and frank, abounding in health and vigorous color ...» Patricia Mathews, Passionate Discontent, (Chicago/London, The University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 189-190.