Maurice UTRILLO

Born on Christman Day in Montmartre, Paris, Maurice UTRILLO in one of the famous Montmartrian painters who are also born there.

Maurice is the son of Marie-Clémentine Valadon, known as Suzanne Valadon. She used to be a model to Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and many more.

Maurice Utrillo spent his youth with his grandmother. He felt as if he was thoroughly abandonned, became a alcoholic and made a lot of mess. Owing to this, his studies went badly. Maurice Utrillo also spent some time in asylums.

Yet, his therapeutical occupations saved him and maybe also helped to get known.

Maurice Utrillo got encouragements from his mother.

As the 1920s came back, Maurice Utrillo was already famous and French government honored him with the Croix de la Légion d'Honneur in 1929.

Then in 1935, Utrillo got married to Lucie Valore. She helped with financial management and checked that Maurice Utrillo did not fall back into alcohol.

Maurice Utrillo died on November 5, 1955 and was buried in the Saint-Vincent cemetary in Montmartre.

His WORKS:

Maurice Utrillo used to paint lots of landscapes, especially Montmartre, showing man's construction. His technical style is very particular and you could difficultly put him in a specific category.

Yet, you can distinguish 3 periods:

The Montmagny one (from 1904 to 1910)

The White Period (from 1910 to 1914)

The colorful period (from 1922 to 1955)

Maurice UTRILLO his worldwide known and one can see his works in numerous museums.