Painted in 1927, when Suzanne Valadon was about 62, this self-portrait with mirror refuses flattery. Born Marie-Clémentine Valade, she had risen from laundress’s daughter and iconic artists’ model to a leading Montmartre painter, and she now meets her own image with the same uncompromising gaze she turned on others. She shows herself as a middle-aged white French woman reflected in a tall mirror, seen from the chest up. Her light beige skin is built with thick, textured strokes as short brown-blond hair brushes her jaw and her blue eyes meet the viewer in a tired, steady gaze. Her shoulders slope in a patterned orange dress with dark zigzags that echo the strong black line around her features. Behind her, vertical bands of pale yellow, cream, and a deep red curtain fill the background. To the right, a black vase with green foliage and small yellow blossoms stands beside a bowl stacked with apples and oranges. Along the lower edge, the mirror’s wooden frame and a folded blue fan of cloth cut across a crowded still life of fruit and dark vessels, tying her reflection to the studio table. Her sloping shoulders, creased skin, and tight mouth acknowledge age, yet her blue eyes stay bright and assessing. Thick impasto, dark contours, and the piled fruit, vase, and rumpled blue cloth recall the still lifes that sustained her career, folding the studio tabletop into her reflection. Owned by the City of Sannois and on long-term loan to the Musée de Montmartre in Paris, this self portrait has become a touchstone in recent exhibitions that work to restore Valadon (now Suzanne, but once Marie-Clémentine) to the center of modern art history.
“Autoportrait au miroir” (Self-Portrait with Mirror) by Suzanne Valadon (French) - Oil on card on wood / 1927 - Musée de Montmartre (Paris, France) #WomenInArt #SuzanneValadon #Valadon #MuseeDeMontmartre #MuséedeMontmartre #ArtText #FrenchArt #arte #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #SelfPortrait
