Maurice's paintings. Maurice Utrillo: son of his mother

Utrillo Maurice Utrillo Maurice

(Utrillo) (1883-1955), french painter. Master of the lyrical urban landscape, depicted the Parisian suburbs, the streets of Montmartre ("Renoir's Garden", 1909-10).

UTRILLO Maurice

UTRILLO (Utrillo) Maurice (December 25, 1883, Paris - November 5, 1955, Dax, dep. Landes), French painter, master of the urban landscape, who saw the city through the eyes of a lonely artist. The main and only theme of his work was Paris, the outskirts of Montmartre.
Family
The artist's mother, Marie-Clementine Valadon, changed many occupations (a fashionista's apprentice, a nanny, a waitress, an acrobat in a circus, etc.) before becoming a professional model (Auguste Renoir worked with her (cm. Renoir Auguste), Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (cm. PUVI DE CHAVANNE Pierre) by Vincent van Gogh (cm. VAN GOGH Vincent), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (cm. Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de) and others), and then as an artist (Suzanne Valadon). Her bold, confident sketches delighted Edgar Degas (cm. DEGA Edgar), and, having mastered the technique of soft varnish under his guidance, she began to paint in an intense colorful range, reminiscent of the works of the Fauvists.
The mother considered Maurice's father to be a certain Boissy, but at the age of 8, for unknown reasons, the boy was adopted by a longtime friend of Valadon, the Spaniard Miguel Utrillo y Milins, who worked part time with newspaper essays, painting and architectural projects, but he soon left for Spain and did not remind of himself .
The name "Maurice Utrillo" the artist began to sign his paintings only after 1906, before that he used the names "Maurice Valadon" or "M. U. Valadon.
addiction
Having become addicted to alcohol in adolescence (a 14-year-old boy, who independently traveled to a Parisian college from the suburbs, was sometimes brought up by plasterers and, having fun, was treated to wine), the artist throughout his life, especially in his youth, was subject to severe binges. Because of addiction, he had to quit college (if he could not drink a glass of absinthe, the boy fell into a rage - he tore notebooks and clothes, broke furniture, threatened suicide). Attempts to teach Maurice the craft also failed, and the 16-year-old teenager became the subject of universal ridicule.
The young man was saved by Suzanne Valadon - on the advice of a psychiatrist, she began to teach her son to draw, but the first lessons (the mother led her son with a pencil on paper) were unsuccessful: Maurice threw away naughty pencils, tore cardboard, tried to jump out the window. But gradually painting carried him away.
First experiences. Features of the painting style
Utrillo made his first independent sketches with a pencil, then he began to paint in oils. In 1903, in the autumn, he was already working on location (however, out of 150 landscapes, made, according to his mother, in six months, not a single one has survived - the earliest known date back to 1905).
During 1903-07. he writes the villages of Montmagny and Pierefitte, surrounded by gentle hills and overgrown with apple trees. In these landscapes, the influence of the work of C. Pissarro can be traced. (cm. PISSARRO Camille), noticeable by the characteristic small jerky stroke. Utrillo could get acquainted with the works of Pissarro at the Luxembourg Museum or at the Durand-Ruel Gallery.
However, the impressionistic manner of conveying light and air was not interesting to him; the artist was much more attracted to the tangible graphic materiality of the subject. Soon, the compositional basis of most of his landscapes becomes a street going into the distance, flanked by the side wings of houses; in the background - a barrier of houses or towers, obscuring the sky and making the space closed. Unlike Pissarro's paintings, in Utrillo's landscapes, even, uniform lighting reigns, the wind is not felt, the sky is almost always cloudless. The artist simplifies real forms, generalizing the contours, he reduces the outlines of objects to their basis; With one stroke of the brush, it creates the feeling of a slippery staircase or damp plaster, often only outlines window failures. Oil paints seem too transparent to him, and to convey the texture of plastered and moldy walls, he adds sand, gypsum, glue to the paint, uses lime, puts pieces of moss, inked and enameled plates, sheets of paper. Rubbing the paint in a cup, he applies it to the canvas with a knife, smoothes it with his fingers. This painting style, which was formed quite early, has hardly changed over the years.
Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris
In 1908-10. The favorite theme of the artist, who by this time was fully formed, was Notre Dame Cathedral. Utrillo repeatedly returned to the image of the cathedral later, however, the paintings of precisely these years, where the cathedral appears as an integral majestic image that suppresses a person, are considered by experts to be the most powerful. Interest in cathedrals - the artist painted in Paris, Rouen, Chartres, Reims, Lourdes - is associated not only with their picturesqueness, but also with Utrillo's increasing religiosity over the years.
Montmartre
The world fame to the artist was brought by his paintings with images of Montmartre - an ancient corner of Paris, which has retained its originality to this day. The Montmartre hill, formerly a suburb of Paris, had lost its idyllic charm by the time the artist began to paint it: instead of picturesque shacks, multi-storey apartment buildings rose, winding narrow streets climbing the slopes of the hill began to resemble wells, poppies that once adorned Montmartre disappeared , only a few corners have retained their original semi-rural appearance. However, for Utrillo, lonely, exhausted by his illness, Montmartre from the 1910s. (and to a ripe old age) became main theme creativity. His paintings were bought by tavern clerks for a glass of aperitif and shamelessly exploited the talent of the artist. One of his biographers recalls: “On the pale mask, only the eyes shone with warmth and clarity, like the eyes of a child or a recluse. But this look was contradicted by the bitter fold of her lips. No, it couldn't be called a smile. There was too much compulsion in her ... ".
In 1909, the artist's works were exhibited for the first time in the Paris Autumn Salon, and soon he and his mother and stepfather went on a trip to Corsica and Brittany, but even there, from memory, he continued to paint views of Montmartre. The first personal exhibition of Utrillo took place in 1913, and besides the tavern-keepers, he also had other admirers - real lovers of painting (for example, Octave Mirbo (cm. MIRBO Octave)).
"White Period"
By the 1910s include the beginning of the so-called "white period" in the work of Utrillo. This period, which lasted until the beginning of the First World War, is characterized by the predominance in the paintings of various shades of white, turning either into ashy, then into silver, then again into milky, gray or golden tones. With the help of the most beloved colors - white zinc, yellow chrome, cobalt, vermiyon, dark kraplak - the artist managed to create not only an amazingly rich color scheme, but also to convey the silent charm of the deserted streets of Montmartre, clad in cobbled pavements. The impression of an extinct city is often complemented by stunted trees and densely closed houses, which evokes a poignant feeling of loneliness and homelessness, so characteristic not only for the sensations of the artist himself, but also for the townspeople of the 20th century in general. In 1950, at one of the Paris auctions, an American millionaire paid eight million francs for Utrillo's landscape of the "white period" - a sensational amount, which, however, did not surprise the artist himself, by this time his paintings were valued more than the canvases of Claude Monet (cm. MONET Claude) and Edgar Degas (cm. DEGA Edgar).
post-war period
After the war, some changes took place in the artist's work. In addition to Montmartre themes, new motifs appeared: the Sacré-Coeur church, the Moulin de la Galette, the Pink Rabbit cafe, Tertre Square, and others. The color of the paintings became less restrained. The artist paints the city in holidays when it is decorated with flags, banners and posters. During this period, Utrillo also works in watercolor and gouache, and tries his hand at lithography.
The fame of the artist is growing, his exhibitions are regularly arranged, monographs are published. Together with his family, he lives in the ancient castle of St. Bernard, which became his property (many owners of drinking establishments also became rich, having received Utrillo's landscapes for a glass of aperitif and subsequently selling them for a lot of money).
In 1926 Utrillo commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev (cm. Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich) designs sets and costumes for George Balanchine's ballet (cm. BALANCHIN George)"Barabo", staged in Paris at the Theater Sarah Bernhardt (cm. BERNARD Sarah).
In recent years, the artist has hardly worked from nature (the Montmartre of his youth has irrevocably changed), now it was enough for him to paint another picture. postcard. Landscapes are gradually becoming more monotonous and monotonous. Clever copyists easily forge them and fill the market with numerous fakes. And yet, the artist's later paintings also have their own charm - flatness gives the architecture a touch of scenery, and Utrillo's world - a resemblance to a puppet theater: sad, touching and naive.
In 1935 Utrillo married the widow of a banker who collected his work. The events of World War II practically did not change the orderly, calm life of the artist. In 1951, the premiere of the film " tragic life Maurice Utrillo. And the artist, continuing to live in the past, even on the day of his death, began to paint the landscape of the Montmartre Rue Cortot. Maurice Utrillo is buried next to his mother, who died in 1938, in the cemetery of St. Vincent.

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Utrillo, Maurice ... Wikipedia

Maurice Utrillo (fr. Maurice Utrillo) (December 25, 1883, Paris November 5, 1955, Dax) French landscape painter. The tombstone on the grave of Maurice Utrillo at the Montmartre cemetery of Saint Vincent Biography Maurice Utrillo was born on December 25, 1883 in ... ... Wikipedia

- (Utrillo) (1883 1955), French painter. Landscape painter. He studied with his mother, the artist S. Valadon. Experienced the influence of C. Pissarro. Utrillo's uncomplicated, direct perception of nature landscapes depicting deserted narrow streets ... Art Encyclopedia

Utrillo, Maurice- Maurice Utrillo. Street in Montmartre. 1930. Private collection. Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955), French painter. Master of the lyrical urban landscape (Parisian suburbs, streets of Montmartre). … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Utrillo Maurice (December 25, 1883, Paris, √ November 5, 1955, Dax, Landes department), French landscape painter. Grew up in an artistic environment. He studied with his mother, the artist S. Valadon. Experienced the influence of C. Pissarro. Permanent motives U. √ narrow and ... ... Big soviet encyclopedia

- (Utrillo, Maurice) (1883-1955), French post-impressionist painter. Born in Paris on December 25, 1883. He began painting in 1903 under the guidance of his mother, the artist Suzanne Valadon. He usually signed his work Maurice Utrillo V. (In ... Collier Encyclopedia

Maurice Utrillo(Utrillo) - French painter, master of the urban landscape, who saw the city through the eyes of a lonely artist. The main and only theme of creativity was Paris, the outskirts of Montmartre.

Maurice Utrillo family

Maurice Utrillo was born on December 25, 1883, in Paris. The artist's mother, Marie-Clementine Valadon, changed many occupations (a fashionista's student, a nanny, a waitress, an acrobat in a circus, etc.) before becoming a professional model (Auguste Renoir, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and others), and then an artist (Suzanne Valadon). Her bold, confident sketches delighted Edgar Degas, and, having mastered the technique of soft varnish under his guidance, she began to paint in an intense colorful range, reminiscent of the work of the Fauvists.

The mother considered Maurice's father to be a certain Boissy, but at the age of 8, for unknown reasons, the boy was adopted by a longtime friend of Valadon, the Spaniard Miguel Utrillo y Milins, who worked part time with newspaper essays, painting and architectural projects, but he soon left for Spain and did not remind of himself .

The name "Maurice Utrillo" the artist began to sign his paintings only after 1906, before that he used the names "Maurice Valadon" or "M. U. Valadon.

IN perfect shape there is no perfection, the task of the artist, to paint the urban landscape, is to find that perfection that contains ideal architecture buildings.

Utrillo Maurice

Alcohol addiction

Having become addicted to alcohol in adolescence (a 14-year-old boy, who independently traveled to a Parisian college from the suburbs, was sometimes brought up by plasterers and, having fun, was treated to wine), the artist throughout his life, especially in his youth, was subject to severe binges. Because of addiction, he had to quit college (if he could not drink a glass of absinthe, the boy fell into a rage - he tore notebooks and clothes, broke furniture, threatened suicide). Attempts to teach Maurice the craft also failed, and the 16-year-old teenager became the subject of universal ridicule.

The young man was saved by Suzanne Valadon - on the advice of a psychiatrist, she began to teach her son to draw, but the first lessons (the mother led her son with a pencil over the paper) were unsuccessful: Maurice threw away naughty pencils, tore cardboard, tried to jump out the window. But gradually painting carried him away.

In every work of art, human feeling must manifest itself before any aesthetic system or pictorial method.

Utrillo Maurice

First artistic experience. Features of the painting style

Utrillo made his first independent sketches with a pencil, then he began to paint in oils. In the autumn of 1903, he was already working on location (however, out of 150 landscapes, made, according to his mother, in six months, not a single one has survived - the earliest known date back to 1905).

During the years 1903-1907, Maurice painted the villages of Montmagny and Pierefitte, surrounded by gentle hills and overgrown with apple trees. In these landscapes, the influence of the work of Camille Jacob Pissarro can be traced, noticeable by the characteristic small jerky brushstroke. Utrillo could get acquainted with the works of Pissarro at the Luxembourg Museum or at the Durand-Ruel Gallery.

However, the artist was not interested in the impressionistic manner of transmitting light and air; he was much more attracted by the tangible graphic materiality of the subject. Soon, the compositional basis of most of his landscapes became a street stretching into the distance, flanked by the side wings of houses; in the background - a barrier of houses or towers, obscuring the sky and making the space closed.

Unlike Pissarro's paintings, in Utrillo's landscapes, even, uniform lighting reigns, the wind is not felt, the sky is almost always cloudless. The artist simplified real forms, generalizing the contours, he reduced the outlines of objects to their basis; with one movement of the brush, he created the feeling of a slippery staircase or damp plaster, often only outlines the failures of windows. Oil paints seemed too transparent to him, and to convey the texture of plastered and moldy walls, he added sand, gypsum, glue, used lime, applied pieces of moss, inked and enameled plates, sheets of paper. Rubbing the paint in a cup, applied it to the canvas with a knife, smoothed it with his fingers. This painting style, which was formed quite early, has hardly changed over the years.

They say I was influenced by Pissarro, perhaps an accidental impression, but not an influence: I did not see other paintings, except for the paintings of my mother.

Utrillo Maurice

Cathedral of Notre Dame

In 1908-1910, the favorite theme of the artist, who by this time was fully formed, was Notre Dame Cathedral. Utrillo repeatedly returned to the image of the cathedral later, however, the paintings of precisely these years, where the cathedral appeared as an integral majestic image that suppresses a person, are considered by experts to be the most powerful. Interest in cathedrals - the artist painted in Paris, Rouen, Chartres, Reims, Lourdes - is associated not only with their picturesqueness, but also with the increasing religiosity of Maurice Utrillo over the years.

Montmartre

The world fame to the artist was brought by his paintings with images of Montmartre - an ancient corner of Paris, which has retained its originality to this day. The Montmartre hill, formerly a suburb of Paris, had lost its idyllic charm by the time the artist began to paint it: instead of picturesque shacks, multi-storey apartment buildings rose, winding narrow streets climbing the slopes of the hill began to resemble wells, poppies that once adorned Montmartre disappeared , only a few corners have retained their original semi-rural appearance. However, for Utrillo, lonely, exhausted by his illness, Montmartre from the 1910s (and until old age) became the main theme of his work. His paintings were bought by tavern clerks for a glass of aperitif and shamelessly exploited the talent of the artist. One of his biographers recalls: “On the pale mask, only the eyes shone with warmth and clarity, like the eyes of a child or a recluse. But this look was contradicted by the bitter fold of her lips. No, it couldn't be called a smile. There was too much compulsion in her ... ".

In 1909, the artist's works were exhibited for the first time in the Paris Autumn Salon, and soon he and his mother and stepfather went on a trip to Corsica and Brittany, but even there, from memory, he continued to paint views of Montmartre. The first personal exhibition of Utrillo took place in 1913, and besides the tavern-keepers, he also had other admirers - real lovers of painting (for example, Octave Mirbo).

I have always followed my instinct, sometimes my canvases seem to be embossed, because I brushed them several times, and only the sky I tried to make transparent.

Utrillo Maurice

"White Period"

The beginning of the so-called "white period" in the work of Maurice Utrillo dates back to the 1910s. This period, which lasted until the beginning of the First World War, is characterized by the predominance in the paintings of various shades of white, turning either into ashy, then into silver, then again into milky, gray or golden tones. With the help of the most beloved colors - white zinc, yellow chrome, cobalt, vermiyon, dark kraplak - the artist managed to create not only a surprisingly rich color scheme, but also convey the silent charm of the deserted streets of Montmartre, chained in cobbled pavements. The impression of an extinct city was often supplemented by stunted trees and densely closed houses, which evokes a nagging feeling of loneliness and homelessness, so characteristic not only for the sensations of the artist himself, but also for the townspeople of the 20th century in general. In 1950, at one of the Paris auctions, an American millionaire paid eight million francs for Utrillo's landscape of the "white period" - a sensational amount, which, however, did not surprise the artist himself, by this time his paintings were valued more than the paintings of Claude Monet and Edgar Degas.

post-war period

After the war, some changes took place in the artist's work. In addition to Montmartre themes, new motifs appeared: the Sacré-Coeur church, the Moulin de la Galette, the Pink Rabbit cafe, Tertre Square and others. The color of the paintings became less restrained. The artist painted the city on holidays, when it was decorated with flags, banners and posters. During this period, Utrillo also worked in watercolor and gouache, tried his hand at lithography.

The fame of the artist began to grow, his exhibitions were regularly held, monographs were published. Together with his family, he began to live in the ancient castle of St. Bernard, which became his property (many owners of drinking establishments also became rich, having received Utrillo's landscapes for a glass of aperitif and subsequently selling them for a lot of money).

In 1926, Maurice Utrillo, commissioned by the Russian theater and artist Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev made sketches of scenery and costumes for George Balanchine's ballet "Barabo", staged in Paris at the Sarah Bernard Theater.

“On the pale mask, only the eyes shone with warmth and clarity, like the eyes of a child or a recluse. But this look was contradicted by the bitter fold of her lips. No, it couldn't be called a smile. There was too much compulsion in her ... "- wrote about him one of the biographers.

Unlike typical stories, Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) not drawn to art since childhood, was not young talent. From the very first months of his life, he showed signs of a nervous breakdown that remained for the rest of his life: he could suddenly become numb, tremble all over, or stop breathing altogether ... Today I want to introduce you to the most talented person, whose biography will not leave anyone indifferent.

Maurice Utrillo is an outstanding French painter, master of the urban landscape, who worked in the Art Nouveau style. His mother, Suzanne Valadon, was a model. She posed for such famous artists How , . Susanna was fond of painting since childhood and, having met various artists, gained experience and skills from them, honed her technique. Subsequently, she became the first woman to be accepted into the French Union of Artists. There is still controversy about Maurice's father, since Suzanne adhered to free views in relations with men.

Maurice's childhood was very difficult. The boy was raised by his grandmother. The birth of a grandson briefly distracted her from drinking. Caring for a child with a mental disorder was difficult for her. The boy was unsociable, frequent bouts of anger and aggression did not allow him to make friends. Often after another nervous breakdown Grandmother sold Maurice with a mixture of red wine and broth. Such a drink was considered a sedative among the peasants.

Maurice acquired alcohol addiction even before he learned to talk normally. He spent all his youth on the street. Alcoholic binges and drug use led to the fact that in 1902 he first got into mental asylum. After this incident, the mother, not knowing how to distract her son from addictions, began to make attempts to captivate him with painting. And a miracle happened: a young man who had no education, guided only by the advice of his mother, began to paint. Of course, this did not solve all problems. Diseases never left Maurice, but painting helped out in difficult periods, added value to life.

In his paintings, Maurice Utrillo simplified real forms, reducing the outlines of objects to their basis. To revive his canvases, he added to oil paint, which, in his opinion, was too transparent, lime, sand, gypsum and even pieces of moss. It was almost impossible to apply paint with such an admixture to the canvas with an ordinary brush, so he used a knife, after which he smoothed the paint with his fingers.

"The original quarter of Paris with its provincial nooks and bohemian customs", - this is how Utrillo characterized Montmartre, which became a favorite topic in his painting. It was the views of this area of ​​Paris that brought the artist worldwide fame.

If you look at some of the landscapes of Montmartre for a long time, then a quiet, aching melancholy and bitterness appear. The beauty of half-empty streets, gray houses with tiled roofs, walls cracked from time to time, large white churches - all this is filled with some kind of hopelessness. The space in his paintings is closed, surrounded by walls, dead ends. It was as if time had stopped on the canvas, or rather, it was numb with sadness.

Gate Saint-Martin is one of the early work the artist, written in 1909, is an excellent proof of the above. Dark, cold tones, empty black windows without light, wagons that seem to be barely dragging somewhere forward. And what's in there? Bright future? Maybe hope? Not at all. No. There is a dark spot, a dead end, or another turn of the street that will lead to the same turn. And I don’t want to go there - and it’s sad to stand here.

For the first time, Utrillo's works were exhibited in the same year at the Paris Autumn Salon. Shortly thereafter, he went on a short trip with his mother and stepfather to Corsica and Brittany, but even there he continued to paint Montmartre from memory.

The first personal exhibition of Utrillo took place only in 1913. After her, the artist finally had fans who were real lovers of painting. Up to this point around young man mostly charlatans were spinning, who, knowing about his addiction, often exchanged paintings for a drink.

But not all the works of Maurice Utrillo were gray and cold. For example, in 1914 he painted the painting “Street in Montmartre”. At first glance, the canvas is very bright, even elegant. The blue sky is almost cloudless, and dark colors Hardly ever.

But in the closed windows and crushing high walls, something dreary slips again. As if the artist is very small and very lonely. This is again the topic of a dead end, and it seems that there is no way out of this city.

Speaking about the work of Utrillo, one cannot but say about the picture, which stands out from a number of urban landscapes. Mental disorder never left Maurice, only retreated for a while.

“He wandered the streets of Paris and its suburbs, unconsciously seeking adventure, which he sometimes found. He was even glad of some dubious meeting, if only to discharge himself and spend an excess of strength, at least in a fight ... ", - recalled his friend Francis Carco.

The energy of madness accumulated in the artist, and did not always find an outlet in fights or alcohol. In 1916, he again ended up in a psychiatric clinic, where doctors put him on his feet for a long time. This was the impetus for writing the painting "Madness". Looking at her, one can fully feel how Maurice really suffered, and how painful his illness was.

Changes in the work of Utrillo occurred after the end of the war. Painting has become less restrained, the artist begins to depict the city on holidays, when the streets were decorated with flags and posters. During this period, he tried to paint with gouache and watercolor. Every year the fame of the painter grew, exhibitions were held regularly, and paintings were sold for crazy money. He made sketches of scenery and costumes for the ballet "Barabo" commissioned by the Russian theatrical figure Diaghilev, which was staged in Paris at the Sarah Bernard Theater. And in 1929 he was even awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

With age, Maurice's mother realized that her son would need a strong patron when she was gone. The artist did not get along well with women. They were afraid of his illness, and he, having seen enough of his mother's lovers, was rarely fascinated by them. In 1935, Suzanne Valadon arranged for her son to marry the wealthy widow of a banker, Lucy Valor, who gladly took (not without benefit for herself, of course) Maurice under guardianship. After a while, at the insistence of Lucy, the couple left the city for the Parisian suburbs, where it was more difficult for Maurice to lead a wild life.

But the theme of Montmartre never left his work. A postcard or his own memory was enough for Maurice to depict his favorite area. But the landscapes became monotonous, monotonous and flat, which gave them a resemblance to theatrical scenery. And the people depicted on them began to resemble puppets.

By the end of his life, Maurice Utrillo was completely "obsessed" with the past. He was ill, practically did not leave the house and continued to write only Montmartre. Even on his last day, he began to work on the landscape of the Montmartre Rue Cortot.

This December marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous landscape painters of the 20th century, Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955).

This December marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous landscape painters of the 20th century, Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955). Paris was painted by many artists; but most have seen City as a phenomenon, as an interweaving of streets and buildings, bridges and embankments, basilicas and boulevards, dawns and rains, lovers and clochards. Utrillo was a painter of the street, road, lane, house - he painted, so to speak, not a crowd, but a face in the crowd - each time new, detachedly interesting and alive.

The future artist was born on the first day after Christmas, December 26, 1883, becoming a kind of gift for his seventeen-year-old mother, Maria-Clementine Valadon, a former circus acrobat, and by the time her son was born, a famous model and budding artist. Marie-Clementine (in the future - Suzanne) Valadon was quite popular in the artistic circles of Paris. She posed for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Puvis de Chavannes and, of course, Edgar Degas, from whom she even took painting lessons. Perhaps this popularity of hers was the reason that the real name of Maurice's father remained unknown (among the alleged fathers were the same Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir, and also a certain artist Boassi). In April 1891, the nominal father of his son Valadon appeared: he adopted the seven-year-old Maurice spanish artist And art critic Miguel Utrillo y Molins. He did this, most likely because good relationship to his mother, but did not take any further part in the life of Maurice.

A rather funny version of this adoption, told by Diego Rivera, was left by the American collector Ruth Baquin: “After the birth of Maurice, Susanna Valadon came to Renoir, for whom she had posed for 9 months before. Renoir looked at the child and said: “He cannot be mine, his color is terrible!” She then went to Degas, whom she also posed for at the time. He said, "He can't be mine, his shape is terrible!" In the cafe, Valadon saw a friend of the artist Miguel Utrillo and told him all this. Miguel replied that she could give the child the name Utrillo: “It is an honor for me to give my name to the work of Renoir or Degas!”

Maurice, whose upbringing was practically only his grandmother, grew up a nervous and quick-tempered child - he skipped school and often got into trouble. Calmness in the house was not added by his early alcoholism. According to one version, in order to calm little Maurice, grandmother from the very early childhood gave him wine, according to another, the teenager was treated to a drink by fellow travelers with whom he traveled from the suburbs of Paris (the family settled there in 1896, when Suzanne Valadon married the lawyer Paul Musi) to his school in Montmartre.

Maurice simply drank himself, and in 1900 his stepfather took him from educational institution and got a job, hoping that work and a strict work schedule would not allow Maurice to drink so much. However, the work did not help. At the age of 18, Maurice first came to the clinic with an attack of delirium tremens. One of the recommendations of doctors to bring him into an adequate condition was painting. Suzanne Valadon, wanting to save her son and distract him from his addiction, began to teach him everything that she herself knew. So Maurice Utrillo got into the world of art.

His first experiments in painting date back to 1902; at the same time he settled in the house of his stepfather and mother in Montmagny. Utrillo began with sketches in pencil, and after a while he began to paint in oils. Already in the autumn of 1903, he worked in the open air - he painted the views that opened from the parental porch, as well as landscapes of the surrounding villages, Montmagny and Pierefitte. The years 1904–1906 (1907) in Utrillo's work are today called the "early (Montmagny) period". Suzanne Valadon offered her son a rather strange palette, consisting of only five colors: white, two shades of yellow, cinnabar and pink madder. This turned out to be very useful both for upset nerves and for the future creative manner Maurice: he was not accustomed to self-restraint, but he was placed in a rigid framework from the outside - and they had to be reckoned with. Having reworked some of the techniques of Pissarro and Sisley (vertically built landscape, straight, sharp strokes, laconic color), he came to an almost graphic manner, with straight lines of houses and streets, transparent air and a flattened perspective - and this manner was already his own.

In 1906, Maurice - apparently wanting to establish himself in his own artistic independence - began to sign his works with the surname Utrillo, abandoning his mother's surname (before he signed Maurice Valadon, Maurice Utrillo V. or M. W. Valadon).

In 1907, his mother and stepfather separated, and Maurice again ended up in Montmartre. Since then, Paris, and especially Montmartre, have become the main theme of his work. In Paris, the artist experienced short period impressionism (1907–1908). At this time, he was looking for angles, compositions that the best way would convey the life of his streets as if frozen in time. At this time, he worked a lot with dark, saturated shades of green, brown, which were not previously in his palette, he painted with a brush and a palette knife - wide, quick strokes.

In 1909, Utrillo successfully showed his paintings at the Salon. Since that time, he no longer worked in the open air - now Utrillo painted Paris and Montmartre, and mainly from photographs and postcards. finalized and characteristic composition his works - a narrow street or road leading to the horizon line, in the center of the flattened lines of buildings and houses. The artist abandoned the complex form, reduced, where possible, the images to simple geometric silhouettes and straight lines, transferring the image to the canvas with the help of a ruler and a compass. Many critics of that time found this style of painting too simplistic and dry, but over the years it has hardly changed, which did not prevent his work from finding new fans and gaining fame. By 1910, his palette had become noticeably lighter; fame came to him, he was recognized by criticism. In 1913, his first solo exhibition was held with great success.

All these first achievements date back to 1909–1914, a period that is usually called “white” in Utrillo’s work, according to the characteristic predominance of white and its shades in the palette: the sky and roads look whitish, the walls of houses are covered with white plaster; white light emanates the emptiness of his city and streets, on which there is practically no trace of human presence.

Color minimalism probably required the artist to balance it with texture - and Utrillo began to add sand, glue, lime to the oil, put pieces of moss and paper on the canvas.

In 1914, the "white period" was replaced by "color", which dominated the work of Utrillo for the next two decades. During these years, Utrillo's palette blossomed with bright colors, which he now applied with thinner, more transparent and broad strokes. Therefore, it is natural that the line in his works has become more graphic, and the perspective and horizon, built by it, are almost mathematically verified. Another important innovation in painting of this time was the appearance in the landscape human figures- albeit for the time being as a staffing, but with them a time arose, for which access to Utrillo's paintings was previously closed. Everything that was timeless suddenly turned out to be today's, alive. Paris of the “color period” celebrated holidays, was decorated with flags, bright panels and posters; flowers grew in it on the balconies, the trees turned green, the snow shone freshly on the roofs and pavements. The updated city views of Utrillo turned out to be simpler and more understandable for perception; many liked them, and their author became increasingly popular both in France and - by the 1920s - beyond its borders.

In 1925, the first monograph appeared, dedicated to creativity artist, - "Gouache Utrillo", written by the famous art critic Andre Salmon.

Utrillo's solo exhibitions, held in Paris, Lyon, Brussels, were a great success. On December 11, 1925, the premiere of George Balanchine's ballet "Barabo" staged by the Russian Ballet troupe took place in London, the costumes and scenery for which Utrillo performed by order of Sergei Diaghilev. In 1929, the French government awarded the artist the Order of the Legion of Honor.

In 1935, Utrillo married Lucy Povel, former actress, the widow of a Belgian banker. She quickly took control of her husband's affairs, thus freeing the artist's 69-year-old mother from this responsibility. Soon the couple bought a mansion in the suburbs of Paris, away from the city temptations that did not leave Maurice throughout his life.

Changes in life were followed by changes in the artist's manner - the lines softened, the composition became freer, bright, sometimes even flaming colors appeared. It began, as it is customary to define it, " late period"in the artist's work, which lasted until his death on November 5, 1955. Only the image of pre-war Paris remained unchanged, primarily Montmartre, as it was before the First World War.

In 1937 Utrillo had solo exhibitions in the USA, then in England, Germany and Switzerland. In 1950, a retrospective of his work was arranged in Venice. The Comedie Francaise hosted the premiere of Gustave Charpentier's opera Louise with scenery and costumes by Maurice Utrillo.

In total, more than a thousand works came out from under the brush of Utrillo. Very popular with the public, his paintings quickly became both a collector's item for wealthy people, and something that simpler people were happy to decorate a room with - in a word, the demand was huge. But often fans and just businessmen, taking advantage of the artist's craving for alcohol, exchanged canvases for bottles of wine. Also known are small-format works that Utrillo wrote directly in drinking establishments as payment for a drink - they were once called "Utrillo from the Bistro".

Relatives - first his mother and stepfather, then his wife - fought his addiction to drunkenness as best they could. Utrillo spent most of his life under the strict control of people from the outside (which did not prevent him from time to time to still get to the bottle). The well-known life writer of Paris in the first half of the 20th century, Francis Carco, in his book “From Montmartre to the Latin Quarter” even recalls a certain “daddy G.” in return, he had a priority right to all paintings written by Utrillo.

One of the most famous collectors of Utrillo's paintings was Paul Petrides (Paul Petrides) - a gallery owner, a representative of the "interwar" generation of art dealers. Since 1935, Petrides had the exclusive right to sell Utrillo's works, and in return he paid the artist's family a fixed amount per work per week. These weekly visits of Petrides to Utrillo's house looked something like this (according to LCR - participants in the AI ​​forum):

“By 5-6 pm Utrillo woke up and began to pace around the house, trying to get a glass of wine in the kitchen. Lucy tried to persuade him to take the job. Then it resounded throughout the house hoarse voice suffering Utrillo:

He got me! God, how he got me!

Aaah, he's talking about me, - Petrides beamingly smiled, lounging in an armchair.

In the end, by seven o'clock, Petrides lost patience and went up to the studio, where Utrillo stood at the easel with a palette in his hands and copied his old work from a photograph with longing in his eyes.

Master, master, - Petrides addressed him, - let's hurry up!

Grumbling through his teeth, Utrillo was finishing painting the white houses that had been destroyed twenty years ago.

Walls! Petrides commanded.

The artist applied a layer of white paint to the canvas.

Utrillo obediently added a few horizontal lines.

Now the signature!

It took more time to sign the works, the artist diligently wrote his name: .

As soon as the work was signed, Petrides grabbed the still quite damp canvas and ran to hide it in the trunk of his car. When he returned, he gave Lucy 80,000 francs. The comedy was over - until next Sunday."

Based on the Petridis collection November 30, 2010 auction house Artcurial held an auction for "30 works by Maurice Utrillo". 100% of the lots were sold at auction for a total of 5,522,209 euros.

In general, Utrillo's works quite often appear in the catalogs of various auctions - both large ones, Sotheby's and Christie's, and small houses around the world, even in Japan. Over the past few decades, it has been put up for public auction almost three and a half thousand times, including about two thousand paintings were sold and graphics appeared in catalogs about a thousand times.

In the legacy of Utrillo, the market most appreciates the work of the 1910s, that is, the "white period": in the top ten most expensive paintings by Utrillo, there are 8 such works. The highest auction results of his paintings were shown in the 1990s. So, a record amount for the artist of 7,300,000 francs (1,277,500 dollars) was paid for the work "Cafe Turelle in Montmartre" (1911) at the Artcurial auction on June 19, 1990. Second place among the most expensive works belongs to the view of the famous Parisian cafe "Nimble Rabbit" (1910), sold at Christie's auction in London on June 25, 1990 for 600,310 pounds ($ 1,026,678). "(c. 1953), for which May 15, 1990 at Christie's (New York) for $ 900,000.

Another surge of interest in the artist was noted in the mid-2000s. On May 9, 2007, at the auction at Sotheby's for $ 936,000, the work "The Slums of Montmartre" (ca. 1931) was sold - a record result for Utrillo's work at Sotheby's over the past 10 years. The record for the 2000s at Christie's is $ 679,500 - was delivered on November 3, 2004: it was with this result that the auction for lot 56 ended - the painting "The Old Mills of Montmartre and the Debré Farm" (1923).

More recent results include a screen painted by Utrillo and sold at the 30 Maurice Utrillo auction on November 30, 2010 for €835,540 ($1,102,327).

According to artprice.com, $100 conditionally invested in Utrillo's works (total in painting and graphics) in 1999 would have turned into $125 by March 2013. Growth is small, and sharp price rises are also not observed, but, more importantly, there are no outright failures, that is, the market for Utrillo's works can be considered fairly stable.