The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon)

The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon)
The Hangover
Artist	Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Year	1887–1889
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	47 cm (19 in) × 55 cm (22 in)
Location	Fogg Museum
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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 to 1889, just before he became successful as an artist. The painting depicts a drunken woman drinking alone in a club, reflecting the counterculture of Montmartre and the specter of alcoholism among French women during the Belle Époque. The model in The Hangover is artist Suzanne Valadon, 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. Although she had been drawing all her life, by 1883, she had become 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 influenced both the content and the choice of title, although there is some disagreement about this. Lautrec's technique is loosely reminiscent of both the color theory of Neo-Impressionism and the technique of Lautrec's art school friend Vincent van Gogh. The work was preceded by several prepatory studies for the painting followed by a drawing in ink and chalk that was later published in Le Courrier français in 1889. Lautrec drank copious amounts of alcohol to deal with pain from his assumed underlying genetic disorder which left him disabled. This and the syphilis he later acquired due to his habit of frequenting brothels would later contribute to his death at the young age of 36. The work was first exhibited in the United States at the Armory Show in 1913. It is now held by the Fogg Museum, while the study and drawing are both held by the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec. The Hangover is one of several different works by Lautrec featuring Suzanne Valadon, including Maria big with child (1884) in the Von der Heydt Museum, Portrait of Suzanne Valadon (1885) in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Portrait of the Painter Suzanne Valadon (1885) in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, and Rice Powder (1887) in the Van Gogh Museum.

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. Lautrec was disabled, possibly due to a genetic disorder known as pycnodysostosis.^[1] His birth parents were cousins, so there is speculation that his health problems came about due to their intermarriage. 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.^[2] Lautrec's father hired deaf and mute artist René Princeteau as his art tutor in his teenage years; the young Lautrec learned by copying Princeteau's work, much of which was focused on sports, hunting, and horses.^[3] Princetau helped Lautrec get accepted into the Paris studio of Léon Bonnat at the age of 17,^[4] where he trained as a painter under Bonnat and Fernand Cormon. In the early to mid-1880s, Lautrec took up residence in Montmartre, first moving to 19 bis rue Pierre-Fontaine around 1884, then later back to 19 in 1887.^[3] Montmartre was 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]

Top: 19 bis rue Pierre-Fontaine; Bottom: Street view

Between 1884 and 1889, French laundress Carmen Gaudin modeled for Lautrec for some 15 paintings. In the late 1880s, Lautrec began working on a series of large paintings based on the Cirque Fernando, a popular French circus in Montmartre. His friend and colleague, Italian Impressionist painter Federico Zandomeneghi (1841–1917), recommended his own model, Marie-Clémentine Valadon,^[6] who began working as an art model after injuring herself as a circus trapeze artist at the age of 15.^[7] At the same time, nightclub owner Aristide Bruant opened Le Mirliton in 1885, a popular cabaret where both Valadon and Lautrec mingled together.^[8] Taking Zandomeneghi up on his offer, Lautrec hired Valadon to pose for one of his circus scenes which he then expanded into a larger series. Lautrec's circus works show Valadon riding side-saddle on a horse as she is about to dive through a hoop held by a clown. They were later prominently featured at the Moulin Rouge, and were said to be so influential that it led Georges Seurat (1859–1891), Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) to try their hand at similar circus scenes in homage to Lautrec.^[6] By that time, Valadon had already modeled for Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.^[9] Previously, in 1884, 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.^[10] 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".^[11] He was the first person to buy her artwork and he also gave her the idea to change her name from Marie to "Suzanne".^[12]

The outsider French subculture of sex work held a special appeal for Lautrec, perhaps because he was also an outsider as a disabled man in 19th century French society.^[13] 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, Lautrec completed around 50 paintings featuring prostitution, none of which were exhibited or known until after he died.^[14] 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. Lautrec moved to Place Pigalle, lower Montmartre, in 1897, residing in an apartment at 15 Av.^[3] He 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.^[15] In March 1899, Lautrec's family had him "kidnapped" while he was drunk to try and treat his alcohol problem. When he awoke, he found himself in a locked room in the Chateau Saint-James asylum. Several months later, he was released, but his health continued to get worse. In 1901, he died at his family home at the age of 36.^[16]

Top: Preparatory study; Middle: Prepatory study; Bottom: Drawing

Toulouse-Lautrec's friendship with singer and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant is thought to have influenced his development of The Hangover, with some art historians arguing that the image derives from parts of a song Bruant wrote about drinking.^[17] Other art historians, like Gale Murray and David Sweetman, disagree. According to John Storm, Valadon modeled for The Hangover for fun and amusement, not as a paid modeling job. It was, Storm writes, "an experience they shared in high spirits, a little private joke that came as an aftermath of one of Lautrec's less inhibited parties".^[12] Lautrec may have begun working on the painting sometime before February 1888.^[18] It is also believed that the relationship between Lautrec and Valadon was over sometime around or after February.^[19]

Van Gogh was present in Lautrec's studio when he began painting The Hangover, and he continued to show interest in it as Lautrec worked on it. Art critic Henri Perruchot implies this was because Lautrec had borrowed elements from Van Gogh's technique of crosshatching.^[19] Previously, Lautrec had used Van Gogh's technique in his Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887),^[19] which depicts the artist with a glass of absinthe in a nightclub. Van Gogh was living in Arles in the summer of 1888. He wrote a letter to his brother asking about the painting, indicating he was still curious about what Lautrec was trying to do: "Has de Lautrec finished his picture of the woman leaning on her elbows on a little table in a café?"^[20] Perruchot argues that in its execution, The Hangover combines "the aesthetic influence of Van Gogh and the moral influence of Bruant",^[19] while art historian Jacques Lassaigne notes that "the influence of [Van Gogh's] technique is manifest."^[21] Gale Murray notes the influence of Neo-Impressionist color theory in the painting. The completed work was one of ten paintings by Lautrec that was on permanent exhibition at Le Mirliton, Bruant's club.^[18]

A woman sits alone inside a cafe at one of two round tables near a pillar,^[22] 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.^[17] 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.^[22] Her white shirt identifies her as a working-class woman, likely a prostitute.^[23]

Throughout its history, the painting has been known by several titles.^[23] When the painting was first sold as part of the Maurice Masson collection in 1911, it appeared with the name La Buveuse (Gueule de Bois).^[24] At the Armory Show in 1913, the first large exhibition of modern art in the United States, it was shown with the title Woman Sitting at Table.^[25] In his 1969 catalogue raisonné, writer Gabriele Mandel referred to the title of the work as The Morning After or Woman Drinking.^[26]

The Hangover depicts a drunken woman drinking alone in a club, reflecting the counterculture of Montmartre and the specter of alcoholism among French women during the Belle Époque in the 1880s.^[1][27] 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.^[7] 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".^[28] Champagne production almost doubled from 1850 to 1883, while wine consumption by Parisians tripled. "Increased consumption", writes Varriano, "led to increased dysfunction".^[7] Culinary historian Alexandra Leaf notes that by the end of the 19th century, Paris had 27,000 cafés, the highest number of retail business establishments serving alcoholic beverages in the world.^[29]

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^[β] and Lautrec took advantage of when it came to using absinthe in the cabarets.^[30] 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".^[7] Varriano notes that Lautrec may have been drawn to drinking and café culture in this way as well to help cope with his disability.^[7] John Storm writes that "Lautrec drank constantly to anesthetize the pain in his legs and in prodigious quantities."^[12] Valadon may have been attracted to drinking when 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."^[7]

Top: Maria big with child (1884); Top-Middle: Madame Suzanne Valadon, artiste peintre (1885); Bottom-Middle: Portrait of Suzanne Valadon (1885); Bottom: Rice Powder (1887)

Toulouse-Lautrec was often criticized for the way he presented his art models. Biographer June Rose accused Lautrec 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.^[31] 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.^[31] Working-class women like Valadon were viewed as sexually available and promiscuous.^[32] Along these same lines, Kathryn Schneider of the New Orleans Museum of Art notes how Lautrec'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."^[32]

Other artists who supported Lautrec were aligned with his aesthetics and sensibilities. The Hangover would serendipitously bring French Impressionist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) into Lautrec's orbit when it caught his attention and vocal admiration. The illustrated magazine Le Courrier français published a drawing of The Hangover in 1889.^[γ] Subsequently, 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 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!"^[2] Later, Lautrec recommended Valadon to Degas as a potential mentor. Contrary to rumors, she never posed for Degas. They became friends, and Degas is said to have helped her exhibit her work in 1894 at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts,^[11] the first woman painter to do so.^[33]

The painting is thought to have been originally held by Aristide Bruant, but the provenance is unclear. 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. In 1914, a duplicate, counterfeit art forgery was discovered at a retrospective exhibition.^[24] The authentic work was held by Van Horne's descendants until 1946, when it was sold to art collector Maurice Wertheim for $30,000 at an auction of the family collection. At the time, Art News reported that Wertheim's purchase of the painting was the "outstanding item" of the entire Van Horne collection, as it was the most expensive painting sold at the auction. Wertheim was said to prefer The Hangover to Lautrec's Redhead in Mr. Forest's Garden (1887), Lautrec's portrait of Carmen Gaudin (now in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum). 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.^[23] The study and drawing are held by the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec.^[17]

• International Exhibition of Modern Art, 69th Regiment Armory, New York City (February 17, 1913– March 15, 1913)^[25]
• Art Association of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec (1933)^[23]
• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario (1944)^[23]
• Three Women: Early Portraits by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts (April 6, 2002–July 21, 2002)^[34]

Notes

References

• The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) at the Fogg Museum.