| Joy of Life | |
|---|---|
| French: La Joie de vivre | |
 | |
| Artist | Suzanne Valadon |
| Year | 1911 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 122.9 cm× 205.7 cm(46 3/8 in× 81 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
| Accession | 67.187.113 |
Joy of Life (La Joie de vivre) [1] is an oil painting by Suzanne Valadon, completed in 1911. [2] It was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, in 1967. [2]
Suzanne Valadon's Joy of Life depicts a landscape with four nude and seminude women who are watched by a nude man. [3] The nude male was modeled by Valadon's lover, André Utter. [4] They met through her son, Maurice Utrillo, and Utter modeled nude for several of Valadon's paintings, including Adam and Eve (1909) and Casting the Net (1914). [4]
Joy of Life is based on the theme of "women as nature", a typical subject at the time. [1] Gill Perry has argued that the painting reworks the theme of bathers in nature. [3] She notes that the women "seem strangely separate from each other, the male viewer and from the nature that surrounds them", which suggests a "more ambiguous, dislocated relationship with both nature and the male spectator". [3] Perry's reading is echoed by Patricia Mathews, who has described the figures as being in nature, but not equivalent to nature. [1] She suggests that the male viewer "has no other role in the painting except as this near-caricature of the dominating male gaze", as the women are unaware of being watched. [5]
Rosemary Betterton has argued that the figures disrupt the male gaze and are, in fact, being caught in a moment without being sexualized. [1] According to Mathews, the painting does not offer the "coherent narrative that so clearly dominated masculinist images". [5] Valadon's Joy of Life, Mathews has noted, is consistent with the ways in which "various narratives intersect in her work in often uncomfortable ways to dislodge and destabilize conventional gendered interpretations". [5]
In Casting the Net, completed three years later, Valadon actually reversed the traditional active male/passive female concept by casting the nude male in the role of object. [6]
Suzanne Valadon was a French painter who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.
Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke erotic arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engravings, films, paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Some of the earliest known works of art include erotic themes, which have recurred with varying prominence in different societies throughout history. However, it has also been widely considered taboo, with either social norms or laws restricting its creation, distribution, and possession. This is particularly the case when it is deemed pornographic, immoral, or obscene.
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André Utter was a French painter. He was born in the 18th arrondissement of Paris to parents of Alsatian origin. He is best known for having been the second husband and manager of French painter Suzanne Valadon and the step-father of her son, Maurice Utrillo. The trio have also been called the trinité maudite because of their quarrels, reconciliations, and alcoholism.
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Fine art nude photography is a genre of fine-art photography which depicts the nude human body with an emphasis on form, composition, emotional content, and other aesthetic qualities. The nude has been a prominent subject of photography since its invention, and played an important role in establishing photography as a fine art medium. The distinction between fine art photography and other subgenres is not absolute, but there are certain defining characteristics.
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Casting the Net is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Suzanne Valadon, executed in 1914. It has the dimensions of 201 by 301 cm. It is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Nancy.
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Adam and Eve is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Suzanne Valadon, executed in 1909. Its dimensions are 162 by 131 cm. It is held at the Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris.