Maurice Utrillo was born an illegitimate child on December 26, 1883, at 8 rue de la Porte, Paris. His mother, Marie Valladon (1865-1935), also an illegitimate child, later changed her name to Susan Valladon and became a model for painters and later a painter. She was an active Parisian painter such as the Symbolist Pierre Puvis deChavannes, the Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and other Models. She was persuaded to paint by Edgar Degas. She was eighteen years old when she gave birth to Maurice, and the child's biological father is unknown. Rumor has it that it was Chavannes, but Lautrec, Renoir, and even the composer Eric satie have all been suspected of fathering the child at one time or another.
The father's last name caused problems when Maurice was seven. Susan was married to Paul Moussis, an industrialist and later a wealthy man who worked for a French bank. While he allowed Maurice to take his surname, he did not want him to be an heir to the estate. So the Spanish architect-painter and art critic I. Morris Mikel Utrillo, who had lived with Susan, promised to let Maurice Jr. take his surname. Among the Montmartre painters, he was quite a famous figure. He was a champion of the younger Pablo Picasso and prompted art critics to reacquaint themselves with Fl Greco.
It is said that when Susan was questioned at one dinner party about who Maurice's biological father really was, she replied, "Probably the work of Chavannes or Renoir!" So to put the question out of her mind, Maurice said, with great bravado, "Since it's the work of a fine artist, I'll sign it!" On January 27, 1891, Maurice was officially recognized and acquired the surname Eutrillo. But apart from inheriting the surname, Maurice had nothing to do with him. For Morris, it was just a change of surname, so he was not grateful. For about ten years, when he began to paint, he also used his mother's surname, signing his works "Maurice Valladon". It wasn't until 1910 that he first officially signed his work "Maurice Utrillo V".
Yutrillo spent much of his early childhood in the care of his grandmother, Madelenoux. It is said that the young Eutrillo was such a pain in the ass that Grandma Madreanu used to dilute red wine with water as a sedative whenever Eutrillo had a temper tantrum and fed it to Eutrillo. So, unfortunately, Eutrillo already knew what alcohol was from an early age. In 1896 Susan married Moussis and the family moved from Montmartre to Pierrefitte, north of Paris. But with Moussis busy with his Parisian office and Suzanne buried in her Montmartre studio, the two were often away from home. As a result, Eutrillo's teenage years were lonely and isolated. Later he entered the Lycée Roland in Montmartre. He excelled in math at the school, but did not do well in other subjects, and even in art he was only poorly qualified. On his way to school from Pierrefonds to Montmartre, there were many things that attracted him along the way, the most influential of which were cafes and hotels. Soon after, he began to drink heavily, and when he was drunk he got into fights on the street, so that he often returned home late at night, bruised and battered.
In 1900, Utrillo was withdrawn from school, and his stepfather thought his behavior might improve if he worked to support himself. Introduced to a number of jobs by Mussis, most of which he was fired from immediately and none of which lasted long, Utero suffered his first bout of psychosis from alcoholism in 1901 and was forced by Mussis to enter the H?pital Sainte-Tanu in Paris for four months in 1904. After learning about Uttrillo's family circumstances, the hospital physician persuaded Suzanne to let Uttrillo try his hand at painting in order to distract him. Eutrillo reluctantly took up painting, but in 1905, after his family moved from Pierrefonds to Montmagny, he began to devote himself to painting, depicting a number of Montmagny landscapes on heavy paper or canvas. These works belong to the "Montmagny period" at the beginning of his career. All of them were painted with thick layers of pigment, and each one took about two to three hours to paint.
The view from the window of his home high up on the hills of Panzon is a beautiful collage of small houses and courtyards in the town. Whether it is the Rooftops of Montmagny, painted in 1906 or 1907, or the landscape of Montmagny's Panson Hills, these works are depicted with precision and correctness. The works of this period reveal his concern for the nature of pigment.
Eutrillo, who had difficulty breaking his drinking habit, also engaged in painting in Montmartre, where his mother, Susan, had a studio. He drew much of his inspiration from among the alleyways and streets of Montmartre. Montmartre, Place St. Pierre" (1909) and "Rue Lubic and the Pancake Mill" (1908) are representative works of this period, and the "Montmartre period" is characterized by a leisurely style of painting and a somber but brightly colored style. At any time, Montmartre is an attractive place for artists. Susan's studio was located on rue de la Cordeau, while the neighboring rue de la Mosinee housed the studios of Renoir, Paul Gauguin, and Vincnet Van Gogh, among others. On the corner of the Rue de Cordeaux is the famous "Wash Boat", a building that has been added on and added to like a wash boat connected to the Seine River, where many painters and writers have lived. Among them, the genius Pablo Picasso (Pablo Picasso) also lived here, and the Cubism he founded with Georges Braque was born here. The painters Juan Gris and Kees Van D0rlgerl, as well as the poet Max Jacob and the critic André Simon, also lived here.
While these artists lived in the neighborhood, Utrillo was never influenced by them or by the new, evolving trends in art. The painters Eutrillo admired were the Impressionists Pissaro Camille or Alfred Sisley. His best friends were the painters Jarvis Kidger and Amedeo Modigliani.
Kije, like Eutrillo, always painted morning or evening scenes in the Parisian countryside in bright colors. Although Eutrillo and Kidder often sat side by side on the hills of Montmartre painting, they never spoke to each other. Eutrillo's interactions with Modigliani, however, were quite different. When they were drunk, they always bragged about each other, Modigliani flattering Eutrillo as the great painter, and Eutrillo honoring Modigliani, who was never drunk, as the great painter. This anecdote is widely known.
Taking advantage of Euthyphro's weakness for alcohol, many people called themselves dealers and bought his works for about the price of a bottle of wine. These people called these works (mostly small ones) "Hotel Utrillo's works". Louis Ripert, a writer-turned-painter, had first choice of all of Eutrillo's works in 1912, acquiring them for only about a hundred francs a month. Although Ripert took advantage of Eutrillo, he was credited with keeping Eutrillo's early works from falling into disrepair and being thrown away.
In 1909, Eutrillo had his first taste of success when he exhibited two works at the Fall Salon. But the prestigious école des Beaux-Arts refused to accept him. During this period, Utrillo abandoned outdoor sketching and began to use postcards for his drawings. He enlarged the size of the postcards and then changed the composition to depict them on canvas. Montmartre, Rue de la Mosinee (c. 1916) was made on the basis of a postcard from 1870, and shows a view of Paris that was fifty years ahead of its time. Around 1910, Eutrillo's use of color changed to a brighter, more vibrant color, a period that critics today refer to as the "White Period". This period, in addition to his daily routine of painting and drinking, was interspersed with his enforced institutionalization as an alcoholic, and in 1912, as a result of alcoholism, he was admitted to the Saint-Noire asylum, not far from Montmartre, from which he was discharged and re-admitted several times until the summer of 1914. At the end of the same year he was admitted to the hospital of St. Tanoux in Paris. In 1916 he was admitted to the psychiatric hospital at Féléchouff, and in 1908 to a hospital in Au Nespoix. But he later escaped from this hospital.
But during this period, Utrillo continued to paint several paintings. In l914, he used brighter colors and clearly depicted lines. When these new works came out, it became known as the "color period," which lasted until 1930.
In December 1919, Euthyphro finally gained recognition when the dealer Lubuto opened a show for him at the Galerie Luparto in Paris, displaying forty-six works from the fifteen years after 1910, and Euthyphro was recognized by the world. Despite this warm appreciation and material success, Eutrillo's life did not change much: he was hospitalized in 1920 and again in 1921, and was even arrested and detained in a detention center for drinking too much alcohol. His hospitalization was hardly reassuring either, as alcohol was provided to allow Eutrillo to paint before the work was stolen.
The Galerie Bernem Junod in Paris held a major exhibition of Eutrillo's work in 1924. But by this time, Uttrillo had been arrested for drunkenness and tried to kill himself by banging himself against a wall in a detention center. André Joutel, who had married Susan in 1914, sold Uttrillo's work in 1923 and bought the Chateau de Saint-Bernard, about 500 kilometers away from Montmartre and the lure of alcohol, on the outskirts of Lyon. Uttrillo was sent to the Chateau de Saint-Bernard to save his life, and was only allowed to return to his new home on the rue de Juno in Paris during the winter months. But the period of sobriety was short-lived, and Eutrillo was soon found to be drinking again and sent back to the Chateau de Saint-Bernard.
By about 1925, Utrillo had become a famous painter. A book on Utrillo by art critic Adolphe Tabarron was published, and solo exhibitions were held in Brussels, Belgium, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and elsewhere. The first London production of Ballet de Lucerne (Russian Ballet), led by Tiagrave, was staged that year, with Yutrillo in charge of the stage and costume design.
Before 1935, it was all Susan Valladon who served as "tender caretaker," keeping an eye on her son's life. But that year, that responsibility found a successor when, on April 3, Lucie Pauwel, a former actress and widow of a wealthy Belgian entrepreneur, married Utrillo. Eutrillo had become acquainted with Lucy and her husband in 1920. Mr. and Mrs. Pauwels were art collectors, and both spoke highly of the work of Eutrillo and his mother. Eutrillo and Lucy soon moved to Angoulême and then to Vesnaytte, a suburb of Paris. There he had his own studio, garden and even a chapel, and from 1924 onwards, religion gradually took on a more important role in his life. He was a great admirer of Joan of Arc and in 1935 he painted The House of Joan of Arc. Even earlier, he had depicted the Basilica of St. Denis, which Joan of Arc had passed through in 1429. Uttrillo had become a great painter, and in 1928, when he was awarded the Jouveneli Medal, France's highest order of honor, his fame finally spread throughout the world. 1937 saw solo exhibitions in the United States, England, and Germany, and in 1942 in Switzerland, and in 1950 a room was devoted to his retrospective in the Venice Biennale, the biennial international exhibition of fine art. During this period, Utrillo continued to produce many works, and in 1950 he designed the stage installation for the opera "Louis" at the Comedian Theater.
On October 17, 1955, Mr. and Mrs. Utrillo were awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Paris. But on January 5, 1955, Eutrillo contracted pneumonia and died a few hours later in his room at the Hotel Dax in southwestern France, where he had gone to escape the cold. The body was transferred to his favorite place, Montmartre, and buried in the cemetery of Saint-Fan?on, just a few steps from the famous tavern he frequented.