Suzy Solidor (18 December 1900 – 30 March 1983) was a French singer and actress, appearing in films such as '' La Garçonne''. Suzy Solidor was born Suzanne Louise Marie Marion in 1900 in the Pie district of Saint-Servan-sur-Mer in Brittany, France. She was the daughter of Louise Marie Adeline Marion, a 28-year-old single mother. In 1907 she became Suzy Rocher when her mother married Eugène Prudent Rocher. She later changed her name to Suzy Solidor when she moved to Paris in the late 1920s, taking the name from a district of

Saint-Servan Saint-Servan (often abbreviated as St. Servan; br, Sant-Servan) is a town of western France, in Brittany, situated 2 miles from the ferry port of Saint-Malo. It is renowned for its shops and restaurants. History In June 1758, during the Seven Ye ...

in which she had lived. Early in 1930, she became a popular singer and opened a chic nightclub called La Vie Parisienne. She was openly lesbian. One of the singer’s most famous publicity stunts was to become known as the “most painted woman in the world”. She posed for some of the most celebrated artists of the day including

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textile as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted ...

Tamara de Lempicka Tamara Łempicka (born Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Górska; 16 May 1898 – 18 March 1980), better known as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art De ...

Marie Laurencin Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or. Biography Laurencin was born in Paris, ...

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...

and

Kees van Dongen Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a r ...

. Her stipulation for sitting was that she would be given the paintings to hang in her club, and, by this time, she had accumulated thirty-three portraits of herself. La Vie Parisienne became one of the trendiest night spots in Paris. Solidor's most famous portrait was painted by

. Solidor met Tamara de Lempicka sometime in the early 1930s, and Suzy asked the artist to paint her. Tamara agreed, but only if she could paint Solidor in the nude. Solidor agreed, and the painting was finished in 1933. During the occupation, her nightclub was popular with German officers; in 1941 she recorded a version of the song "

Lili Marleen "Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied tro ...

" with French words by Henri Lemarchand.Pathé
Discography
/ref> After the war she was convicted by the

Épuration légale The ''épuration légale'' (French "legal purge") was the wave of official trials that followed the Liberation of France and the fall of the Vichy regime. The trials were largely conducted from 1944 to 1949, with subsequent legal action contin ...

as a collaborator and punished with five years without public activities. She died on 30 March 1983 in

Cagnes-sur-Mer Cagnes-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cagnes on Sea''; oc, Canha de Mar) is a French Riviera town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Geography Cagnes-sur-Mer is a town in south-eastern ...

and is buried in the town. Ten years before, in 1973, she gave 40 of her portraits to the village. They are permanently exhibited at the Château-Musée Grimaldi Museum. She was the subject of the song "Sad Songs" by the English group The Christians in their eponymous first album.

References

External links

Biographical profile of Suzy Solidor

Gallery of Suzy Solidor portraits

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solidor, Suzy French film actresses French LGBT singers 1900 births 1983 deaths 20th-century French businesswomen French lesbian actresses Lesbian musicians French LGBT businesspeople Nightclub owners People from Saint-Malo Actresses from Paris Musicians from Paris 20th-century French actresses 20th-century French women singers