Suzanne: Of Love and Art

In Bohemian Paris of the 1800's comes the novelized biography of Suzanne Valadon, a tempestuous, beautiful French artist who was the model and mistress of the artists, Renoir and Lautrec. Lautrec discovered her artistic talent and sent her to Degas who became her mentor. She gave birth to an illegitimate son, Maurice Utrillo whom she literally forced to paint to quell his alcoholism, making him an important artist. Suzanne scandalized Paris by her amorous liaison with her son's friend, twenty-one years her junior. Her determination to overcome the obstacles met by women painters foreshadowed the problems of women today.