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Toulouse Lautrec - Suzanne Valadon - The Hangover
Identifier
010599
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Quote from the Times
Artists’ lovers, it seems, have a canny knack of being able to look after themselves. The most triumphant example is Suzanne Valadon, who dallied with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in fin-de-siècle Paris. A laundress’s daughter, Valadon lived in the same building as Lautrec and for several years became one of his favourite subjects for his vibrant depictions of Montmartre's low life.
In The Hangover (1888), which shows a woman looking sad and sozzled, Valadon is not identified as the artist’s lover. Instead, the title suggests she is just one of many demi-mondaines. So when Lautrec refused to marry her you might have expected her to slink into the gutter. In fact, rather than downing another pichet of rough red, she began to paint. Eventually she became a significant artist in her own right.
You could call it the models’ version of a happy ending.
A description of the experience
