Maurice Utrillo

Painter, born in Paris, France, the illegitimate son of Suzanne Valadon. Despite acute alcoholism, he was a prolific artist, producing picture-postcard views of the streets of Paris, particularly old Montmartre.

Maurice Utrillo, born Maurice Valadon, (December 25, 1883 - November 5, 1955) was a French painter who specialized in cityscapes.

Born on Christmas Day in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre who was actually born there.

Utrillo was the offspring of a liaison between a teenage model, Marie-Clémentine Valadon, and, so it is thought, a young amateur painter named Boissy. Utrillo's mother, Suzanne Valadon was a painter's model who posed for Berthe Morisot and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, as well as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Another story about Utrillo's paternity comes from the memoir of one of his American collectors, Ruth Bakwin. He said, 'He can't be mine, the form is terrible!' At a cafe, Valadon saw an artist she knew named [Miguel] Utrillo, to whom she spilled her woes. The man told her to call the baby Utrillo: 'I would be glad to put my name to the work of either Renoir or Degas!'"

When a mental illness took hold of the 21 year old Utrillo, he was encouraged to paint by his mother.

Critics only took note of him after 1910. Today, tourists to the area will find many of his paintings on post cards, one of which is the very popular 1936 painting titled: Montmartre street corner / Lapin Agile. (See:Lapin Agile)

In 1935, at age 52, he married Lucie Valore and moved to Le Vesinet, just outside of Paris. By that time, he was too sick to work in the open air and painted his views looking at post cards and relying on his memory. Utrillo died on November 5, 1955, and is buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in Montmartre.