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UTRILLO Maurice
UTRILLO (1883 - 1953)
Maurice Utrillo was born in Paris, the son of painter Suzanne Valadon. Adopted by a friend of his mother’s who gave him her family name, Utrillo had a difficult childhood, often sick and always lonely.
The young man turned to alcohol at an early age; trying to save her son, Utrillo’s mother got him interested in painting.
His creation would be the result of a vagabond’s life and he often had to commit himself to a health institute to recover from some illness. In 1916, he even got committed to an insane asylum.
One of Montmartre’s outstanding figureheads, Utrillo met with almost instant success. The painter seemed to have many benefactors. From Francis Carco, who published “The Legend and Life of Utrillo”, to Derain who declared with little restraint: “his canvas displays miracles. He could have been a Vermeer or a new Rousseau…but he is just Utrillo…and that’s enough!”
His life’s work deals with urban landscapes, observed with simple imagination, investigating the more humble quarters. Walls, facades, closed windows, street corners and concrete landscapes void of grass, lamp posts closing in on you; rare and far-off figures striving for peaceful skies: so many images of the work of this artist who received the Legion of Honor from the hands of President Edouard Herriot.
These are the clichés offered by Utrillo: urban banality from the past with a distinct flare and style all his own.
Sought after by art lovers everywhere.
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