Suzanne Valadon’s work totals over 475 paintings, nearly 275 drawings, and 31 etchings (these do not include the many works lost or destroyed over the years). This is an 1883 self-portrait: she was 18 and gave birth to Maurice Utrillo that year. An artist’s model, she taught herself to paint by watching how Berthe Morisot, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec did it.

And this is the window with the north light overlooking the northern suburbs of Paris, with everything recreated as it would have been when Suzanne Valadon worked there during the 1920s. There is a novel by Sarah Baylis called Utrillo’s Mother which is now firmly on the (long) Persephone to-read list.

Suzanne Valadon’s studio is at the top of the museum. It’s been very well recreated and feels as though she has just left to go down and get something. There is a good piece about her on Scalawags here.

To Paris for one night for the (excellent) Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar event; next morning to the (ditto excellent) Museum of Montmartre in the Rue Cortot to see the Suzanne Valadon exhibition (on until March 13th). Valadon was Utrillo’s mother but a fantastic painter in her own right. This is her Family Group  1912 (normally in the Gare d’Orsay): it shows her, her, her mother, Utrillo and her young lover André Utter. Shaming not to have heard of Suzanne Valadon but there are two biographies in English and the exhibition catalogue so that can be swiftly remedied.

Finally: this cup and saucer by Vanessa Bell was in Beverley (and it was a wonderfully sunny day, hence the light). The set is also in David Herbert’s collection and can be seen here.

Like the Laura Knight jug on Monday, these pieces by Ernest Procter are in David Herbert’s collection and he has very generously uploaded everything to Pinterest here.

Dod Procter designed this beautiful plate for the exhibition. (The picture is taken from British Vintage: Ceramics here.)