Vase of Flowers

By 1927 Suzanne Valadon was 62 and, after decades of being told what women were allowed to paint, a recognised figure at last with dealers and exhibitions of her own. The nudes that made her name were hard to sell, frank and heavily outlined bodies that unsettled buyers who wanted prettier flesh. Flowers were another matter. A vase of blooms like this one was the kind of picture that found a wall and a price, and Valadon painted a great many of them across her life. She did not soften her hand for the genre. The same firm dark outline and blunt, unmixed colour she brought to a human figure go into these petals and leaves, so the bouquet carries none of the delicate finish the subject usually invites. She painted it in Montmartre, in the same few streets where she had lived since she was a girl, from flowers cut and set on the table in front of her.