Bouquet de Roses, Bleuets et Fougères

Suzanne Valadon was a legendary woman painter and the first woman in France elected in Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Society of Fine Arts). In her early years, she worked as a circus performer and art model, posing for artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Berthe Morisot, and so on. Recognized and mentored by Edgar Degas, she has successfully become an artist. Bouquet de Roses, Bleuets et Fougères is a representative work from the mature period of her oeuvre, continuing her unique exploration of floral themes. Although she did not receive any academic training, she developed a highly individualistic expression through close interactions with theMontmartre art scene: she takes use of dark contour lines to emphasize the form, presenting rich and dense colours, concise and abstracted shapes, solid yet dynamic compositions. Her flowers are vigorous and sincere, reflecting her Bohemian lifestyle and independent artistic vision. She was the mother of Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) who was noted for his depictions of the houses and streets of the Montmartre district of Paris.