September 23, 1865

It helped she was  French in the last half of the 19th century. She didn't have much else going for her. But you have seen her face, many famous artists painted her. Here is one of the paintings Renoir did of her:





She is Suzanne Valadon (September 23,  1865 to April 7, 1938) and we mention her not because she was painted by many of the famous painters of her time, slept with some of them, and in her life rose above a childhood with no father and a laundress mother. We mention her not because of her resolute independence and darling humor, nor the fact that her son is the famous artist -- Maurice Utrillo, who eclipsed even the talent his mother demonstrated in her own art.

Here is why we mention her:










She is famous for her nudes, and you can see a lot of her art here. Where they mention she fed her cats caviar on Fridays, because Catholics don't eat meat on that day.