Suzanne : of Love and Art [Paperback]

Elaine Todd Koren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2001

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An impressive achievement" -- Bill Henderson-Editor and Publisher

"This vividly real and passionate saga of the astonishing life and achievement of the artist, Suzanne Valadon, is sorely needed..." -- Wilhelmina Holladay, Chair-National Museum of Women in the Arts

About the Author

Elaine Todd Koren has defied time by consistently bucking the tide. A renaissance woman who modeled, acted and studied art with Moses Soyer, she is both an accomplished painter and a writer. A divorced single mother of two, she worked in the New York inner city school system both as a teacher and guidance counselor, and at night she wrote. Her mystical short stories of the children she met, won first prize in both the Educational Press and International Labor Press Association awards. Her guidance book for the elementary school teacher (Prentice-Hall) was well reviewed and widely used in the colleges. She left the educational field to write full time, published articles and then worked on SUZANNE, a biographical novel, the life of the painter, Suzanne Valadon. Koren presently resides in New York City with her husband where she is working on a memoir.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Maverick Books (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967235529
• ISBN-13: 978-0967235523
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,451,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A severe disappointment, April 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Suzanne : of Love and Art (Paperback)

The author manages to tell the story of this extraordinary life in the most laboured way imaginable. It is clear that she has done considerable research and she seems determined to force every finding into the story, regardless of its relevance to character or plot.

The attempt at an interesting narrative technique fails (each chapter is narrated by a different central character: Valadon herself, Lautrec, Degas, etc) because the 'voice' of each character is the same and no independent personality or emotion emerges.

Even the repetition of exclamations in French (just in case we forget that the book is set in Paris?) became pure irritation by the end.

I finished the book because the subject matter is of interest to me, but it was a struggle. There is no subtlety in the writing at all. I was suprised to learn that this is the work of an experienced author because it seemed more like the work of an enthusiastic amateur.

It is telling that of the two 'reviews' on the back cover, one from 'Bill Henderson - Editor and Publisher' is too brief to be informative and the other, from Germaine Greer, is clearly about the book's subject and not about the book.

If you are interested in Valadon, you would be better reading 'Mistress of Montmartre : a life of Suzanne Valadon' by June Rose.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, informational and very well written, March 21, 2007

By 

L. Todd (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Suzanne : of Love and Art (Paperback)

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. It brought to life that era of art. It is obvious that this "fictional" book was thoroughly researched and based on the true story. I recommend this to all my art students and to my friends who want a spicy read on artists and that time period.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Memorable Book, a Memorable Artist, May 17, 2002

By 

Stacy Berman (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suzanne : of Love and Art (Paperback)

As a reader interested in the Impressionist Era, I was particularly drawn to Suzanne: of Love and Art, a novel based on the life of the artist Suzanne Valadon. This very beautiful daring modeland mistress of Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir who taught herself to draw and paint, was well portrayed, I felt, by the author. The obstacles against women artists which she had to overcome in the 19th century in her rise from obscurity, made for a colorful and fascinating novel and certainly an interesting one.

As a parent, I felt that the passages between her and her alcoholic son, Maurice Utrillo, were by far the best written in the book. The passage starting with "and on the fifth day with the daylight streaming through the window and with the snow plaguing Paris. . . .Maurice began to mix his paints," was a particularly moving one. In her forcing her son to paint in order to deal with his alcoholism throws out the question in this century, "How far should a mother intervene in her child's career?" Certainly, her son fought her desire that he be an artist. That is, at first. She followed her gut feeling and insisted. In these times, in modern psychology, her insistence that he paint would appear slightly ludicrous. But it worked! If her son had not become an artist, he would have remained a hopeless drunk.Yet I kept asking myself as a parent, "What would I have done?" The author, of course, followed the actual facts of Suzanne's life and Maurice Utrillo became a great painter.

Suzanne's dilemmas were twofold. Aside from her problem with her son, there was her life with her husband, a womanizer, 21 years her junior. Ms. Koren, again handled this deterioration well in her relationship with him.

I felt that the structure of the book a bit unusual, having the characters close to her in her life tell their version of their relationship with Suzanne. It was a fresh departure from the usual first person narrative.

I found the book interesting an well written and certainly shows the research and knowledge of the subject matter. There's also insight into the times. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.