Portrait of the Painter Suzanne Valadon

Painted in 1885 and now at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, this early portrait of Suzanne Valadon documents Lautrec's relationship with the remarkable self-taught artist who was also a model for Renoir, Degas, and others in the 1880s. Valadon — born illegitimate in 1865 — became a circus acrobat, then a model, and then a painter of genuine originality, encouraged partly by Lautrec himself. Their brief romantic relationship produced what may be one of Lautrec's most psychologically penetrating early portraits. Valadon's strong character and unconventional life made her an ideal subject for his searching observation.

The early portrait shows Lautrec already deploying his characteristic spare characterisation — the face observed with searching precision rather than academic flattery. Valadon's direct gaze and strong features are rendered with economy that conveys her forceful personality, the composition centred entirely on her psychological presence.