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The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) (1887-1889)

The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) (French: Gueule de Bois / La Buveuse), also known as The Drinker, is an oil on canvas painting by French post-Impressionist artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, created from 1887-1889, several years before he became successful as a commercial artist and became widely known for his poster art advertising the Moulin Rouge. The painting depicts a drunken woman drinking alone in a club, reflecting the counterculture of Montmartre and the specter of alcoholism among French women at the time.[1] The model in The Hangover is artist Suzanne Valadon, Toulouse-Lautrec's lover.[α] In the early 1880s, after falling from a circus trapeze at the age of 15 and suffering a back injury, Valadon was forced to switch careers and began working as an art model in Montmartre. By 1883, she had became an artist herself, and she would go on to become the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

French cabaret singer and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant is thought to have heavily influenced both the content and the choice of title. It is believed Toulouse-Lautrec deliberately painted Valadon as a drunk out of spite, as he ended the relationship on a negative note after coming to believe that Valadon was trying to trap him in a marriage by threatening to kill herself if he refused to propose. The reality was that Toulouse-Lautrec himself was an alcoholic, which combined with his assumed underlying genetic disorder and acquired syphilis would later contribute to his death at the young age of 36.[2] It is theorized that Valadon was the only woman who ever truly loved Toulouse-Lautrec, and it may also be argued in turn that Toulouse-Lautrec never loved again after the dissolution of their relationship. Valadon would later say that she cried for a week after Toulouse-Lautrec's untimely death in 1901.

The painting is the culmination of a series of three related works, including a study for the painting in pastel and a drawing in ink and chalk that was later published in Le Courrier français in 1889. The work is held by the Fogg Museum, while the study and drawing are both held by the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec.[3] The Hangover is one of several different works by Toulouse-Lautrec featuring Suzanne Valadon, including two portraits, Portrait of Suzanne Valadon (1885) in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, and Portrait of the Painter Suzanne Valadon in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.

Background edit

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) came from aristocratic family related to the counts of Toulouse. Originally from Albi in southern France, his parents separated when he was young and he later moved to Paris with his mother. Toulouse-Lautrec was disabled, possibly due to a genetic disorder known as pycnodysostosis. His birth parents were cousins, so there is speculation that his health problems came about due to their intermarriage. Toulouse-Lautrec's legs remained child-sized, but his torso continued to grow as an adult. He required a cane to walk, and he would do so hunched over, which would invite derogatory comments about his appearance.[4] In 19th century conservative and religious French society, the disabled were often marginalized, with many becoming social outcasts and beggars. People who were born with disabilities at that time were considered evil and under the influence of the devil and were seen as being punished for past sins.

Toulouse-Lautrec trained as a painter in Paris under Léon Bonnat and Fernand Cormon. He took up residence in Montmartre, well known for its connection to the arts since the 12th century era of Louis VI, who was a notable patron. The attraction of jobs and low rents brought many people to the district. In the late 19th century, Montmartre was inhabited by "small tradesmen, entertainers, petty criminals, prostitutes, artists...those of Spanish, Flemish, [and] northern French...descent...poor workers, mattress menders and circus performers...factory workers, seamstresses, laundresses and artisans".[5] Here, Toulouse-Latrec established his art studios in the rue Caulaincourt and the rue Frochot, while becoming acquainted with Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh and other artists. By 1885, he was fully immersed in cabaret culture, and was greatly influenced by songwriter and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant and his cabaret Le Mirliton, whose working class people of Montmartre became the subjects for his paintings.

Between 1884 and 1889, French laundress Carmen Gaudin modeled for Toulouse-Lautrec for some 15 paintings. Toulouse-Lautrec's friend and colleague, Italian Impressionist painter Federico Zandomeneghi (1841–1917), recommended his own model, "Marie-Christine", whose real name was Marie-Clémentine Valadon. By that time, Valadon had modeled for Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Without ever knowing it, Toulouse-Lautrec and Valadon had been crossing paths for years in Montmartre. They had attended the same parties from at least 1882, and in 1884, Toulouse-Lautrec famously parodied Puvis' painting of The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and Muses by creating his own humorous version of it. Valadon, as it turns out, was the original model for most of the figures in that painting.[6] From 1883 to 1888, Valadon would go on to become Toulouse-Lautrec's model, and from 1883 to 1885, his intimate lover. Toulouse-Lautrec recommended she should go by the name of "Suzanne" instead of Marie, and she used it for the rest of her life.

Sociologist Janet M.C. Burns of the University of New Brunswick notes that "it was Toulouse-Lautrec who first encouraged [Valadon's] intellectual and artistic development".[7] Their relationship lasted only two to three years, and ended abruptly when Valadon threatened to commit suicide if Toulouse-Lautrec refused to marry her, only for him to discover that it was, in his mind, a ruse to obtain a marriage of convenience for herself and her son from a previous relationship. Ruse or not, Valadon and Toulouse-Lautrec were oddly compatible in many ways: they were only a year apart in age (Toulouse-Lautrec was a year older); they were about the same height, and they both loved the circus arts. For a short time, they were inseparable, seen at all of the cabaret clubs together, especially Le Chat Noir. It is said that Valadon was one of the only women known to have truly loved Toulouse-Lautrec. It is also believed that Toulouse-Lautrec never loved again after leaving her.

The outsider French subculture of sex work held a special appeal for Toulouse-Lautrec, perhaps because he was also an outsider as a disabled man in 19th century French society.[8] He also had easy access to prostitutes given his obsession with brothels (maisons closes) and his commercial work for venues like the Moulin Rouge, where prostitutes worked in secret behind closed doors. Whatever the case may be, Toulouse-Lautrec completed around 50 paintings featuring prostitution, none of which were exhibited or known until after he died.[9] By the 1890s, the successful cabaret scene began to experience a downturn due to its eventual exploitation. Le Mirliton closed in 1897, bringing the Montmartre countercultural era to an end. Toulouse-Lautrec sunk deeper into the depths of alcohol abuse in his final years, using a hollowed-out walking cane surreptitiously filled with alcohol, complete with a hidden glass, to hide his drinking from his family.[10] He eventually succumbed to his alcoholism in 1899 and was put into an institution. He was later released and sobered up for a time, but soon relapsed. With his body breaking down, he returned to his family home where he died at the age of 36 in 1901. Valadon would later remark that she cried for a week after his death. Critics consider Toulouse-Lautrec's work as highly representative of the Belle Époque period in France, illustrating a new kind of energy and bohemianism, as well as a decadence that reflected the seamier side of popular social activities, entertainment, and nightlife among the Parisian underclass at the fin de siècle.

Development edit

Toulouse-Lautrec moved to the heart of Montmartre in 1885, living in the Pigalle neighborhood at the 19 bis Rue Pierre Fontaine. He was working at his studio at the 21 Rue Caulaincourt, located on the corner of Tourlaque.

The theme of painting the working class drinking was a popular one by artists in Montmartre, with Degas' L'Absinthe (1876), an early controversial example, much derided by the academic art establishment. Édouard Manet had also popularized similar themes in Plum Brandy (1877). A decade later, in February 1886, Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) became friends after taking lessons in Cormon's studio together. By 1887, Toulouse-Lautrec tried painting the artist with a glass of absinthe in a nightclub. Van Gogh would himself followup with his own painting of his lover drinking in Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin (1887). Another attempt at the same theme was completed the next year with A la Bastille (Jeanne Wenz) (1888). Jeanne was the lover of Frederic Wenz, who along with Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh took classes from Cormon. Jeanne was also a friend of Valadon.

His friendship with singer and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant is thought to have influenced his development of The Hangover, which comes from parts of a song Bruant wrote.[3] By February 1888, the relationship between Toulouse-Lautrec and Valadon was over.[11] Sometime after February of that year, Van Gogh was living in Arles. He wrote a letter to his brother asking about the painting: "Has de Lautrec finished his picture of the woman leaning on her elbows on a little table in a café?"[12] The completed painting may have hung at Bruant's club, Le Mirliton. The alleged ownership of the painting is later traced to Bruant in the early 20th century, but the actual provenance is unclear.

Description edit

A woman sits alone inside a cafe at one of two round tables near a pillar,[13] leaning on the table with her elbows. Appearing in profile, her ear and forehead is hidden by her hair, tied back in a bun on her neck.[3] A glass of wine, almost empty, sits in front of her, with a half-empty bottle next to it. She appears sickly or tired and is treating her hangover with more wine.[13] Her white shirt identifies her as a working class woman, likely a prostitute.[14]

Themes edit

Art historian John Varriano highlights the rise of alcohol consumption during the emergence of modernism, and how its depiction changed in 19th century French art. Haussmannization contributed to the rise of café and music culture, which brought foreigners and residents displaced by construction together to mingle, socialize, and drink.[15] The French legislature deregulated the liquor industry in 1880, leading to what historian Matthew Ramsey describes as a "rapid growth in bars and other outlets".[16] Champagne production almost doubled from 1850 to 1883, while wine consumption by Parisians tripled. "Increased consumption", writes Varriano, "led to increased dysfunction".[15] In terms of the artistic milieu, Jim Drobnick of OCAD University hypothesizes a kind of "inebriationism" to describe the use of alcohol for creative purposes that was popularized in the wake of Romanticism. Drobnick cites Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire as major exponents of intoxication, which both van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec took advantage of when it came to using absinthe in the cabarets.[17] Aside from this artistic "methodology", there were other reasons for drinking. The general public came to the cafés "to wash away their unfulfilled hopes and dreams with alcohol".[15] Varriano notes that Toulouse-Lautrec may have been drawn to drinking and café culture in this way as well to help cope with his disability, while Valadon may have been attracted to it after she had to give up her dream as a trapeze artist for the Cirque Molier after she fell and injured her back at the age of 15. In the painting, Valadon "stares vacantly into space ...Her lack of affect is hardly unique for its time, and likenesses like this are common in the café scenes of Manet, Degas and others. This is the face of urban modernity, detached from a world which on the surface appeared so vibrant and fresh."[15]

Reception edit

Toulouse-Latrec was often criticized for the way he presented models known for their beauty. He was accused of stripping them of their pleasing qualities and portraying them as less than flattering. His worst critics accused him of trying to take his revenge on the world for his own disability and perceived ugliness, by disfiguring whatever he found to be attractive, while his best critics accuse him of artistic bias against Suzanne Valadon, his lover and model for The Hangover and several previous paintings.

Biographer June Rose accused Toulouse-Latrec of portraying Valadon as a "slattern" in his work, which contributed to the "tone of disparagement of Valadon the slut" for a century, often obscuring her later achievements as a woman artist.[18] It was common for Toulouse-Lautrec to have art models pose as prostitutes. Le grosse Marie (1884), an early work Toulouse-Latrec made around the time he moved to Montmartre, has long been thought to depict a prostitute, but recent scholarship indicates that the model is Valadon[19] and that she is pregnant with Maurice Utrillo in the painting. The title was later misconstrued by critics to refer to a prostitute. It was originally intended to refer to "Maria big with child". Later,Toulouse-Latrec's model Carmen Gaudin posed as the fictional prostitute "Rosa La Rouge" in A Montrouge-Rosa La Rouge (1886-1887). The character of Rosa La Rouge was based on the then-popular cabaret song by Aristide Bruant, just as the character depicted in The Hangover is based on a song from Bruant. Given the tremendous influence of Bruant and the Montmartre cabaret counterculture on Toulouse-Lautrec, it is not surprising to find his paintings uniquely dedicated to this theme.

As late as 1996, writes Rose, experts were still unfairly referring to Valadon as a prostitute, in spite of her many achievements in the world of art since her time as a model.[18] This bias against women in the artworld was not unique to Toulouse-Lautrec but was symptomatic of institutional classism and misogyny in French society as a whole. Working class women like Valadon were viewed as sexually available and promiscuous,[20] and as models they were expected to become lovers with the men who painted them. Although there are many stories about her life, one rumor maintains that Valadon's initial pregnancy in 1883 was due to a man named Adrian Boissy, who she met once at the Moulin de Galette, got her drunk and raped her.[21]

Along these same lines, Kathryn Schneider of the New Orleans Museum of Art notes how Toulouse-Latrec's depiction of Suzanne Valadon changed in The Hangover compared to previous paintings after their relationship soured. "Lautrec's weakening friendship presents itself in Lautrec's painting of her", writes Schneider, "where he depicted her chastened and displeased, seated alone bent over a glass of wine. This portrayal differs greatly from Lautrec's 1885 portrait of Valadon entitled Madame Suzanne Valadon, artiste-peintre, where the artist represented Valadon as a confident and chic woman."[20]

Other artists who supported Toulouse-Latrec were aligned with his aesthetics and sensibilities. The Hangover would serendipitously bring French Impressionist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) into Toulouse-Lautrec's orbit when it caught his attention and vocal admiration. The illustrated magazine Le Courrier français published a drawing of The Hangover in 1899.[β] Subsequently, Toulouse-Lautrec gifted the drawing to the Dihau family of musicians, including Désiré Dihau, Henri Dihau, and Marie Dihau. The Dihau family collected paintings and maintained their own gallery at home and were friends with Degas, although Toulouse-Lautrec had never made his acquaintance up to this point. One day, Degas was visiting the Dihau home and noticed the drawing of The Hangover, featuring Valadon as the model, hanging on the wall. "To think," Degas remarked, "a young man has done this, when we have worked so hard all our lives!"[4] Later, Toulouse-Lautrec recommended Valadon to Degas as a potential mentor. Contrary to rumors, she never posed for Degas. They became good friends, and Degas is said to have helped her exhibit her work in 1894.[7]

  •  
    Le grosse Marie (1884)
  •  
    Portrait de Suzanne Valadon (Madame Suzanne Valadon, artiste peintre) (1885)
  •  
    Portrait of the Painter Suzanne Valadon (1885)
  •  
    A Montrouge–Rosa La Rouge (1886-1887)
  •  
    Drawing of The Hangover (c. 1888)

Provenance edit

The painting is thought to have been originally held by Aristide Bruant, but the provenance is unclear. It may have adorned the walls of his nightclub along with all the other paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec. It was later acquired by Maurice Masson in Paris and sold in 1911 to New York art dealer Stephan Bourgeois, thought to be representing Illiinois native and Canadian railway tycoon William Cornelius Van Horne. It was held by his descendants until 1946, when it was sold to art collector Maurice Wertheim for $30,000 at an auction of the Van Horne collection. Upon his death, Wertheim bequested the work to the Fogg Museum in 1951. The painting underwent a full technical examination in 1985, including pigment analysis and an X-radiograph.[14]

Notes and references edit

Notes

  1. ^ At the time, such a lover was referred to as a "mistress" instead of "girlfriend". In the 21st century, the word "mistress" is used primarily to refer to the female companion of a man who is married to another woman. See mistress (lover) for details.
  2. ^ Various sources report the date as 1890, but this appears incorrect. The drawing appeared in issue number 16 of Le Courrier français on April 21, 1889. See Mack 1938, p. 293.

References

  1. ^ Thomas, Richard; Cate, Philip Dennis; Chapin, Mary Weaver; Coman, Florence E. (2005). Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, Princeton University Press. pp. 68-70 ISBN 0691123373. OCLC 56632116.
  2. ^ Harris, James C. (August 2005) "The Hangover (Gueule de Bois)". Arch Gen Psychiatry. 62 (8):824. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.8.824.
  3. ^ a b c Musée Toulouse-Lautrec (1973). Musée Toulouse-Lautrec: Catalogue. Palais de la Berbie. Coopérarative du Sud-Ouest, Albi. pp. xxiii, 122-123. OCLC 1414439702.
  4. ^ a b Hewitt, Catherine (2017). Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781250157645. OCLC 1026408741.
  5. ^ Roe, Sue (2015). In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and Modernism in Paris 1900-1910. New York: Penguin Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780698192232. OCLC 906826043.
  6. ^ Sweetman, David (1999). Toulouse-Lautrec and the Fin-De-Siécle. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 163-166. ISBN 0340607483. OCLC 41659974.
  7. ^ a b Burns, Janet (1991-1992). "Looking as Women: The Paintings of Suzanne Valadon, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Frida Kahlo". Atlantis 18 (1&2): 25-46.
  8. ^ Heller, Reinhold (1997). Toulouse-Lautrec:The Soul of Montmartre. Munich: Prestel-Verlag. ISBN 3791317393. OCLC 36315944.
  9. ^ Schreiber, Rachel. (2016)[2011]. Gender and Activism in a Little Magazine: The Modern Figures of the Masses. Routledge . p. 123. ISBN 9781409409458. OCLC 632227702.
  10. ^ Adams, Jad (2004). Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 127-128. ISBN 0299200000. OCLC 54533120.
  11. ^ Perruchot, Henri; Hare, Humphrey (Trans.) (1960)[1958]. Toulouse-Lautrec (La Vie de Toulouse-Lautrec). Cleveland: The World Publishing Company. p. 301. ISBN 9782253060963. OCLC 79386352.
  12. ^ ​Gogh, Vincent van (2001)[1958]. The Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. Third ed. Boston: Little Brown. p. 544. ISBN 0821226304. OCLC 43497403.
  13. ^ a b Frey, Julia (1994). Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life. New York: Viking. pp. 239-241. ISBN 067080844X. OCLC 30543728.
  14. ^ a b O'Brian, John (1988). Degas to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams and the Fogg Art Museum. pp. 30, 81-83, 146, 154. ISBN 0916724654 OCLC 16472619.
  15. ^ a b c d Varriano, John (2010). Wine: A Cultural History. Reaktion Books. pp. 194-203. ISBN 9781861897909. OCLC 723945847.
  16. ^ Ramsey, Matthew (1994). "Public Health in France". In Porter, Dorothy (Ed.). The History of Public Health and the Modern State. Netherlands: Brill. p. 81. ISBN 9789051835526. OCLC 432015371.
  17. ^ Drobnick, Jim (2017) "Inebriationism". Performance Research. 22 (6): 27-28. doi:10.1080/13528165.2017.1412644.
  18. ^ a b Rose, June (1999). Suzanne Valadon: The Mistress of Montmartre. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 1, 85-86. ISBN 031219921X. OCLC 1036881995.
  19. ^ "Die dicke Marie". Heydt Museum Wuppertal. Media Centre Wuppertal. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  20. ^ a b Schneider, Kathryn (2022). "'Une force ignorée': Three nineteenth-century French women artists". (MA thesis). Texas Christian University. pp. 39-44, Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  21. ^ Storm, John (1958). The Valadon Drama: The Life of Suzanne Valadon. New York: Dutton. OCLC 988270982.

External links edit

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