Renoir's dancer : the secret life of Suzanne Valadon

Resource Information

The work Renoir's dancer : the secret life of Suzanne Valadon represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Hamilton Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Renoir's dancer : the secret life of Suzanne Valadon

Title remainder

the secret life of Suzanne Valadon

Statement of responsibility

Catherine Hewitt

Title variation

Secret life of Suzanne Valadon

Creator

• Hewitt, Catherine

Subject

• Artists' models -- France -- Biography
• Painters -- France -- Biography
• Women painters -- France -- Biography
• Biographies
• Women artists -- France -- Biography
• Valadon, Suzanne, 1865-1938

Genre

• Biographies
• Biography

Language

eng

Summary

A richly told biography of Suzanne Valadon, the illegitimate daughter of a provincial linen maid who became famous as a model for the Impressionists and later as a painter in her own right. In the 1880s, Suzanne Valadon was considered the Impressionists' most beautiful model. But behind her captivating façade lay a closely-guarded secret. Suzanne was born into poverty in rural France, before her mother fled the provinces, taking her to Montmartre. There, as a teenager Suzanne began posing for and having affairs with some of the age's most renowned painters. Then Renoir caught her indulging in a passion she had been trying to conceal: the model was herself a talented artist. Some found her vibrant still lifes and frank portraits as shocking as her bohemian lifestyle. At eighteen, she gave birth to an illegitimate child, future painter Maurice Utrillo. Her friends Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas could see her skill. Rebellious and opinionated, she refused to be confined by tradition or gender, and in 1894, her work was accepted to the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, an extraordinary achievement for a working-class woman with no formal art training. The remarkable tale of an ambitious, headstrong woman fighting to find a professional voice in a male-dominated world. Biographer Catherine Hewitt studied French Literature and Art History at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Courtauld Institute of Art

Biography type

individual biography

Cataloging source

CaOAUW

Dewey number

• 759.4
• B

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult