Maurice Utrillo (French, 1883–1955) Église Notre Dame à Mâcon

Note
Jean Fabris and Gilbert Pétridès had kindly confirmed the authenticity on the present lot when it was last offered at auction.

Born in Paris and raised in Montmartre by his mother, the famed artist Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo, internationally revered for his Parisian cityscapes, was a painter who suffered from bouts of alcoholism and mental illness. Drawing on his mother’s talent, the young Utrillo, who received no formal artistic training but was strongly encouraged by his mother to paint as a form of therapy, initially depicted scenes of his native Montmartre. Following his early so-called ‘White Period’ during the early years of the 1900s, he began adding color to his paintings, and in 1928, received La Croix de la Légion d’Honneur from the French government. An extremely prolific, influential (and often copied) painter, Utrillo travelled to, and painted scenes of, Corsica, Lyon, Brittany, Montmagny, Sarcelles, Vosges, and, as in the present work, Mâcon. As exemplified here, the artist often chose churches as a preferred subject matter. While not generally regarded as a formal Impressionist painter, Utrillo, whose work is characterized by the depiction of simplified, solitary figures who occupy cityscapes with somewhat flattened appearances, a (later) vivid color palette, and somewhat loosely painted canvases, is not easily pigeonholed as being part of a distinct art movement.

Provenance

T. Rossi, Paris.

Christie's, London, sale of June 27, 1995, lot 271.

Private Collection.

Sotheby's, New York, sale of November 8, 2001, lot 323.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Private Collection, Connecticut.