Maurice Utrillo French, 1883-1955

Maurice Utrillo (Paris, France 1883 - Dax, France 1955)

Born in Paris in 1883 to an unknown father, Maurice Utrillo bears the surname of Spanish art critic, Miguel Utrillo, who adopted him in 1891. His mother was Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), a painter herself, as well as a model for several artists and a circus acrobat.

In 1900, he recovered in a detox centre in Sainte-Anne for alcoholism. The doctors advised his mother to introduce him to drawing and painting, for which he immediately showed a clear inclination.

In these years, the so-called "white period" took shape, characterised by calcareous and milky colours created by mixing colour with white zinc. His first solo exhibition was in 1913 at the Eugène Blot Gallery in Paris.

From 1918, a melancholy vein pervades his artistic practice. Despite frequent hospitalisations, the artist never stopped painting, his production growing throughout the 1920s, an accentuated melancholy remaining pervasive despite bright colours.

Self-taught, Maurice Utrillo asserted himself forcefully on the Parisian scene of these years with a well-recognisable style.

Critics place him by right in the group of artists of the so-called School of Paris, the heterogeneous group of avant-garde artists who animated the Parisian cultural debate between 1907-08 and 1920.

His contemporary views of the city and its suburbs filled ​​with material, dense and spontaneous brushstrokes earned him the Legion of Honour in 1928.

Following frequent hospitalisations for both alcoholism and epilepsy, he died in 1955.

Copyright the artist. Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)