Galerie Dreyfus
80
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MAURICE UTRILLO (PARIS, 1883 – DAX, 1955)
Berlioz’s House in…
See original version (French)
80
-
MAURICE UTRILLO (PARIS, 1883 – DAX, 1955)
Berlioz’s House in…
See original version (French)
Estimate €20,000 - €25,000
Voluntary lot
Description
MAURICE UTRILLO
(PARIS, 1883 – DAX, 1955)
Berlioz’s House in Montmartre
Circa 1910
Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper
28.3 x 36.6 cm.
Signed lower right ‘Maurice, Utrillo, V,’
Provenance
Alfred Flechteim Gallery, Berlin; acquired from the gallery in the late 1920s,
then passed down through the family to the present owner.
Certificates
Utrillo Committee.
Occupying the corner of steep streets, offering passers-by a brief respite on their
ascent, this low-rise house dazzles with its radiant whiteness amidst a
dull, mineral-like neighbourhood. Distinctive for its cubic shape and modest size, isolated from its neighbours
by an equally white wall that precedes and extends it, this squat building stands
as a bastion of resistance in a modern city that is constantly gaining ground and height,
surrounded by blocks of flats that tower over it and extend beyond the frame. Its simplicity also lies in
the asymmetry of a blind gable with a single, off-centre window, which a zigzagging gutter
cuts through at its centre. Finally, two small white chimneys crown it, adding the finishing touch
to its rustic charm of mismatched elements. Behind its boundary walls, one can make out
a vast garden whose leafy trees stand in a row like a bulwark against urbanisation.
A meticulous chronicler of the Montmartre landscape, Utrillo offers us here a record of a
vanished village, a snapshot of an era soon to pass. Situated on the corner of Rue Saint-
Vincent and Rue du Mont-Cenis, now demolished, this house was inhabited by the composer
Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) from 1834 to 1837, who spent his days and hours there with his wife
and son: ‘We are so peaceful here in our hermitage. There are only the nightingales
who, all day and all night, sing beneath my windows and are beginning to tire me.”
(Letter to Adèle; 29 April 1834). By the time Utrillo set about painting it, it was serving
as a studio for Georges Braque (1882–1963). It would feature in several of the artist’s paintings, which
demonstrate the evolution of his style. A version dated 1914 and held at the Musée de
l’Orangerie is notably part of his ‘white period’, which begins to emerge in our
version, produced a few years earlier.
Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955) was a French painter who devoted himself mainly to
urban landscapes. The son of the painter and model Suzanne Valadon, though of unknown paternity, he led a troubled life, plagued by alcoholism. Recognised late in life by the Catalan painter Utrillo, his mother’s lover, he adopted the surname in 1891. Immersed in the bohemian artistic circles of his mother’s circle of friends, he was encouraged to take up painting by his mother. His signature bears witness to his affection for her, with the final ‘V’ standing for ‘Valadon’. Trained by the painter Alphonse Quizet, he settled in Montmartre, which he chose as his favourite subject for his paintings. He painted its streets and cafés, which he frequented assiduously, and into which rare human figures would sometimes slip.
During his ‘white period’ (1909–1914), he used zinc mixed with plaster to convey
the dilapidated state of Montmartre’s walls.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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