The Model Strikes Back

"Performers such as Bono and Gavin Friday really should go and see The Nude Who Painted Back."

"I wish they would, we'd appreciate any kind of support we can get!" jokes Mia Gallagher, actress, dancer, artist's model and the person who originated the idea behind this particular production.

So why should the boys go? Well, the play is set in Paris at the turn of the century and includes at least one song by Aristide Bruant, the man who brought social realism to popular music in France, at least sixty years before Dylan did something similar in the States. More than that, the play raises a set of ethical questions that should be central to the life of any artist. Namely, are those who inspire a work of art always given the kind of credit, recognition and reward they deserve? Does anyone remember that Suze Rotolo inspired many of Dylan's greatest early love songs? Likewise, Suzanne Valadon, who was painted by the likes of Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec and is the subject of The Nude Who Painted Back.

"Actually, what you say about Bruant is true and in this play Caroline Moreau sings a song that is very earthy," Mia reflects. "And it is about the model, sung in her voice, saying she was posing since she was a child of six months old, 'then I shat myself', very realistic. And the last verse is 'now I'm eighty and I'm still posing'. It's all very graphic. And suits the whole tone of the play, where we really want to highlight the rawness of this woman's life. She was very courageous, took a lot of risks and fought to get where she finally ended up, saying 'I want to paint back', exhibiting her own paintings. But another song is called 'The Prostitute's Song' and the point is that a lot of these models were working-class girls and could easily have been prostitutes, or worked in the circus. Valadon did all three, as well as working as a laundress and being a fruit seller."

One theme explored in The Nude Who Painted Back, Mia explains, is the disparity between the incredibly romantic pictures Renoir painted of Valadon and the frequently savage reality of her life. For example, while being presented to the world as the essence of virginal innocence, models such as Suzanne Valadon also were expected to service the painters sexually.

"That's part of the moral hypocrisy behind it all. And these women hadn't any power," she says. "I've worked as a model and the power issue is interesting because the model is never recognised as contributing to the painting. Usually when people look at drawings or life-paintings they say 'isn't that artist fantastic?'. It's all about the artist's skills, in capturing this object. As a model, you're still seen as an object, as opposed to someone whose energy actually influences the painting."

Such issues sit at the soul of The Nude Who Painted Back, though Mia Gallagher agrees that if she simply uses the life of Suzanne Valadon as a cipher to polemicise, she's no better than those artists like Renoir who exploited the woman in a similar manner.

"I'm doing this with French actress/director Nathalie Rafal, and we both have monologues in the play but, definitely, above all else, we must be true to the life of Suzanne Valadon herself," she says. "To do otherwise, would be to further violate the woman."

The Nude Who Painted Back will be staged in the Players' Theatre in Trinity College from June 1st–12th.