Editing Suzanne Valadon (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Suzanne Valadon Photo.jpg|thumb|upright|Valadon as a young woman]]
Valadon grew up in poverty with her mother, an unmarried [[Washerwoman|laundress]] in [[Montmartre]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Adler|first=Laura|title=The Trouble with Women Artists: Reframing the History of Art|publisher=Flammarion|year=2019|isbn=978-2-08-020370-0|location=Paris|pages=51}}</ref> She did not know her father. Known to be quite independent and rebellious, she attended primary school until age eleven when she began working.

She had a series of jobs that included working in a milliner's workshop, at a factory making funeral wreaths, selling vegetables, and as a waitress. At the age of 15, she obtained a job in her most desired field: performing in the circus as an acrobat. She was able to work at the circus because of her connection with [[Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld]] and [[Thèo Wagner]], two symbolist painters, who were involved in decorating a circus belonging to [[Cirque Medrano|Medrano]]. The circus was visited frequently by artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and [[Berthe Morisot]] and it is speculated that this was the inspiration for a painting of Valadon by Morisot.{{sfn |Warnod |1981 |p=13}} A fall from a trapeze that injured her back is what ultimately ended her circus career after one year.

It is commonly believed that Valadon taught herself how to draw at the age of nine.{{sfn |Giraudon |2003}} In the [[Montmartre]] quarter of Paris, she pursued her interest in art, first working as a model and a muse for artists, observing and learning their techniques, as she could not afford art lessons herself. She observed and learned from artists, such as  Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, before becoming a noted and successful painter in her own right.<ref>{{cite web|title=Suzanne Valadon|url=http://www.nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/suzanne-valadon|work=National Museum of Women in the Arts|access-date=20 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Suzanne Valadon|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Suzanne-Valadon|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=17 March 2023}}</ref>