Valadon, Suzanne

Valadon, Suzanne süzänˈ välädôNˈ [key], 1867–1938, French painter. After abandoning successful careers as an acrobat and as artist's model to many of the major impressionists, Valadon, encouraged by Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas, became a painter. Her fresh, intensely personal works, including landscapes, nudes, and portraits, are executed in vibrant colors with heavy black outlines. Valadon was the mother of the painter Maurice Utrillo.

See biographies by J. Rose (1998), J. Storm (2017), and C. Hewitt (2018).

See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies