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21 " From time to time, I look at your study in red chalk, which is still hanging in my dining room; and I always say to myself: ‘that she-devil Maria could draw like a little daemon’. Why don’t you show me your work anymore? I am nearing 67.17 "
― Catherine Hewitt , Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon
22 " Suzanne was still striving to steer Maurice towards a more salubrious way of life in early September 1901, when a shattering piece of news reached her: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was dead. "
23 " passed.20 He was 37 years old. "
24 " All the while, Maurice continued to drink. Having invested in land on the Butte Pinson in the commune of Montmagny, Paul Mousis proposed that he build the family a new house. They could have a high fenced garden and no immediate neighbours; it would be far less awkward whenever Maurice had one of his ‘turns’. "
25 " became clear that for the time being, it would be most practical for the family to make their base the apartment in the Rue Cortot.22 "
26 " Maurice remembered the decision as one of the happiest ever made on his behalf.23 For Suzanne, it was as though she had been reborn. "
27 " Suzanne began to work prolifically. She took familiar subjects: nudes, her maid Catherine, her dogs, and flowers – the beauty of which she had now come to appreciate. She also began work on a large canvas, The Moon and the Sun and the Brunette and the Blonde (1903).24 Her painting reflected her altered state of mind. "
28 " Returning to Montmartre, Suzanne was like a wilted plant revived. People knew her, too, even if only by sight. Among young art students and amateur painters, her glittering backlist of employers like Puvis, Renoir and Lautrec had turned her into a minor celebrity. Renoir’s interest in a woman immediately recommended her in the eyes of budding male artists. "
29 " Then followed a job in a factory, making lampshades; that lasted only a few weeks before Maurice got into a fight.26 And the more positions he was dismissed from, the more angry, self-critical and despondent he became. The fallout led to alcoholic binges of increasing severity and duration. "
30 " Their family friend Dr Ettlinger, who had stood as witness at the couple’s wedding, had urged Suzanne to teach Maurice to paint. Doing something creative with his hands would at the very least distract him and channel that unspent energy, Dr Ettlinger had reasoned. It might even prove the miracle cure to his malady. Suzanne was ready to pounce on any new idea which offered a potential remedy, however speculative the results. And painting was what she knew. She agreed: the countryside often proved a source of inspiration to new painters. It seemed worth a try.27 "
31 " Suzanne disliked using tubes of paint. She preferred the control of pigments that hand mixing allowed, and scoffed at the disdain in which certain painters held the business of mixing paints themselves (on the basis that it turned them into artisans rather than artists). "
32 " Suzanne always mixed her own colours "
33 " Suzanne could hardly believe it: Maurice’s pictures were actually good – very good. And they were nothing like hers. He had a style which was entirely his own. ‘You need to learn to draw,’ his mother told him firmly once she had assimilated what she was observing. "
34 " admitted to an institution to receive professional care. On 12 January 1904, he left his home with Suzanne, Madeleine and the man he still called ‘M. Paul’, and was escorted to Sainte-Anne’s psychiatric hospital in Paris.34 "
35 " Sainte-Anne had restored Maurice’s body and Suzanne’s peace of mind. But it had kept a part of his soul. "
36 " Soon, Suzanne was astonished and delighted to see that his work was developing. It was getting better. And his rate of production was staggering; in little more than a year, Maurice completed nearly 150 canvases.41 Fascinatingly, he was not attracted to the figures that caught his mother’s attention. Maurice shied away from human exchanges. Rather, he was drawn to buildings and walls, and he executed his studies with the exactness of an architect, using the same mathematical precision he had brought to his scrutiny of scientific manuals. "
37 " Once or twice, Suzanne happened to mention the work of the recently deceased Alfred Sisley, and henceforward, the painter became Maurice’s obsession and his idol. "
38 " Painting had finally brought Maurice what he had always craved: Suzanne’s attention and an intimate mother–son bond. "
39 " Modelling thereby handed her the key to unlock a door which remained firmly bolted to the likes of Morisot, Cassatt and even many lower-class women. "
40 " she could take a seat for the evening in the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. Conveniently located on the Place Pigalle, it was to this café that Édouard Manet and his Impressionist companions had switched allegiance from the Café Guerbois in the 1870s.16 It was also the café whose unremarkable interior Edgar Degas used as the setting for his In the Café (The Absinthe Drinker) (1875–1876). "