Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955)

Maurice Utrillo was a French artist noted for his naïve yet picturesque cityscapes. Rendered in thickly troweled paint, the artist portrayed the winding streets and alleyways in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris. “On a particularly boring day, I had a clever but unfortunate inspiration,” he reflected. “I seized a piece of cardboard, some tubes of tint and petroleum base—since I lacked real oil—and, confronting a typical Montmartre street corner, I suddenly found myself a practitioner of this difficult and thankless art of painting.” Born Maurice Valadon on December 26, 1883 in Paris, France, his mother was the painter and artist’s model Suzanne Valadon. With the encouragement of his mother and his admiration for the Impressionists Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, Utrillo embarked on a career as an artist. Largely self-taught and suffering from bouts of madness, he was referred to as one of the les maudits (the cursed) along with his friend Amedeo Modigliani. The two painters, led an alcohol-fueled bohemian lifestyle, which ultimately led to the latter’s untimely death. Utrillo died on November 5, 1955 in Dax, France. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, among others.… (meer)

28 x 21.5 cm (11" x 8.5") ISBN 0517538830, Crown, 1983, 96 pages, Hardback

In this survey of the artist the author writes affectionately about the man and his work. While looking at his full career she concentrates particularly on the years between 1906 - 1914, his "White Period". The book includes a bibliography and a few period photographs, there is no index.

The book is well illustrated with 50 full-colour images and 20 in monochrome, virtually all of which are reproduced to a good size on the page, most full-page or as large as the page format will allow. However the quality of reproduction is not of the best of its period, while the colours are rich the images are soft and the dark areas of the colour and especially the black and white images lack detail. The tipped-in images on the title page and page 5, 'Quay in Paris' 1905-06, are of much better quality.… (meer)

21cm x 16cm (8.25" x 6.25") Les Editions Braun, 1953, 78 pages, Hardback

Language: French, English, German

With 10 page of text in English written by a contemporary of Utrillo (who paid 200 francs for two of Utrillos painting from his age, for which the artist received 20 francs each), the very chatty text reveals a little about Utrillo the man and Utrillo the artist, and almost as much about the writer.

In addition this book includes 24 full-page plates in full-colour, the colours are rich and strong and while most of the images are crisp a few of the plates are a little soft, and sometimes the dark areas lack detail. The plates are shown on the right hand page with the facing page blank other than the caption offering title, date and dimensions in cm and location.

A useful unassuming little book.… (meer)