French artist Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938) was an artist's model before becoming a respected painter herself. Part of a circle of artists living and working in Paris's Montmartre neighborhood at the turn of the twentieth century, Valadon was one of the most notable female artists of the period. Valadon is also remembered for her many love affairs and as the mother of prominent French painter Maurice Utrillo.

As the daughter of an unmarried maid, Valadon had a rather solitary childhood. She lived in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris, where she began working as a model for artists who patronized the cabaret called the Lapin Agile, such as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Jean-Louis Forain. Valadon had taught herself to draw around the age of nine. Fellow artists, including Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, responded encouragingly to Valadon’s work. In 1896, her marriage to Paul Mousis enabled Valadon to leave behind her career as an artist’s model, and by 1909, she was painting and working as a full-time artist. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1911, and she reached the height of her celebrity and success during the 1920s. Valadon frequently painted reclining figures in ornately decorated interiors, as in Blue Room(1923). Valadon’s works are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. (French, 1865–1938) was a painter and artists’ model, known as one of the most successful female artists of her generation and the mother of French artist Maurice Utrillo. As the daughter of an unmarried maid, Valadon had a rather solitary childhood. She lived in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris, where she began working as a model for artists who patronized the cabaret called the Lapin Agile, such as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Jean-Louis Forain. Valadon had taught herself to draw around the age of nine. Fellow artists, including Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, responded encouragingly to Valadon’s work. In 1896, her marriage to Paul Mousis enabled Valadon to leave behind her career as an artist’s model, and by 1909, she was painting and working as a full-time artist. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1911, and she reached the height of her celebrity and success during the 1920s. Valadon frequently painted reclining figures in ornately decorated interiors, as in Blue Room(1923). Valadon’s works are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.