aladon believed that "painting was the
most difficult [medium] in which to reach greatness." (15)
She worked for thirteen years on her
oils before she showed them. The wait was
worthwhile when one sees her early Portrait of
Eric Satie. The musician, who was to be
called "The Father of Modern Music", met
Suzanne Valadon at the Auberge du Clou, a
boisterous and inexpensive nightclub, where
he played the piano. An eccentric and penniless
bohemian, Satie affected a top hat, a flowing
lavaliere, and wore a pince-nez. His room in 6 rue
Cortot was next door to Valadon's, with whom he
had a six-month liaison. (16) The affair began on
January 14, 1893, and Satie proposed marriage
that same night. He immediately became
obsessed with the artist, whom he called his
"Biqui", writing impassioned notes about "her
whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny
feet." (17) Valadon did Satie's portrait and gave it to
him, while the musician did hers, which he kept.
The two works hung together and were found
after Satie's death in his room at Arceuil.
The fickle Valadon soon ended the romance
with Satie, leaving him with "nothing but an icy
loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and
the heart with sadness". (18)
The Portrait of Eric Satie is a small work
with a height double that of its length, but it
achieves a monumentality far beyond its actual
size. The oil's unusual dimensions accentuate
the sitter's elongated appearance. An abrupt
cropping seems to amputate his arms, while his
tall hat emphasizes the verticality of the image.
The canvas is divided into two squares: the lower
one shows Satie's black-clothed bust, and the
upper part forms the background, painted in a
striated blue-green that sets off the face and
dark hat. The head constitutes the focus of the
work and is conventionally placed in the center
of the composition it seems to stand upon a
light oval pedestal, which is actually the white
shirt collar. There are no clues to Satie's character
other than those rend in the facial details. A
decisive and stubbornly fixed glance, sensual
red lips, unconventional waxed mustache and
the pince-nez project a personality conscious of
and unafraid of its own originality. Satie was
twenty-six when the portrait was done, and his
lively complexion and taut features stress the
youthfulness of the face to such an extent that
the skimpy beard appears fake.
The linearity of the image, where every
contour is imprisoned in black outlines, is
contrasted with the treatment of the visage.
Valadon has modeled the features solely with
layered patches of color, a Cezannesque technique
that she continued to use throughout
her career. (19)
The portrait of Satie possesses a monumentality
and physicality found in the works
of such renowned portraitists as Degas and
Toulouse-Lautrec. By filling three-quarters of the
canvas's surface with Satie's image, Valadon
gives him an overwhelming presence. The musician
seems to advance toward the spectator, an
illusion created by the receding quality of the
pale background. The life radiating from the
painting takes its source from the vibrancy of
the colors. Large areas of velvety black sparkle
with elusive blue-green accents, and Satie's red
cheekbones set off his startlingly blue eyes, outlined
by the pinee-nez rims. Although the portrait
was done at the beginning of Valadon's idyll
with Satie, passion did not abate her impartiality.
Her assessment of her lover reveals a methodical frankness
close to brutality. If she has
rendered his powerful yet sensitive presence, she
has not hidden an aloofness and judgmental
quality that sets him apart. He stands alone, towering
over the viewer, his strength as well as his
weakness captured by Valadon's impartial brush.
Although stamped with Valadon's personality, the
Portrait of Eric Satie points to several
interacting influences - the strength and overwhelming
presence of the image evoke the
immediacy and sobriety seen in many of
Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, his Aristide
Bruand (20) in particular. Valadon's choice of few
but indicative traits gives to the representation
a caricatural economy that brings it close
to the tradition of the Montmartre satirists.
Valadon seems to have lost her taste for
portraiture during the two decades following the
Portrait of Eric Satie. Not until 1910 did she
resume her former interest and pursue it with
a new and challenging style.
Notes:
15. Suzanne Valadon ou l'absolu.
16. The affair between Valadon and Satie is fully
discussed in Rollo H. Myer, Eric Satie, London,
1948.
17. Quoted from Satie's letter, March 11, 1893,
Archives of the Musée National d'Art Moderne,
CNAC Georges Pompidou, Paris, Vol C.2,
122-128.
18. Ibid.
19. This will be discussed later in this chapter.
20. Aristide Bruand at the Ambassadeurs, 1892,
Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, France. Bruand
is shown wearing a black hat and large red
scarf.
