Lot Essay
"En 1908, Maurice Utrillo entreprend une périod de recherche qui ne durera que quelques années. Il emploie une matière faite de celle, de silice, de plâtre et de ciment. La luminance de ses couleurs est faite d'ocres jaunes, de jaunes, de chromes, de laques de Garance, avec du blanc de zinc et du bleu d'Outremer. Des mélanges subtils apportent à sa palette une substance solide. La matière surgit sur sa toile. Cette capacité à s'exprimer donne de l'importance à son existence" (J. Fabris, exh. cat., L'Exposition Rétrospective de Maurice Utrillo, Tokyo, 1986, p. 29).
"Maurice Utrillo is the painter of Montmartre. Since Lepine, I believe no artist has been able to render with such acute sensitivity the charm of this little provincial town, isolated on the summit of Paris. Utrillo excels in painting the cracked walls of the old houses. The smallest miserable front takes on in his paintings an extraordinary intensity of colour and life" (L. Libaude, exh. cat., Maurice Utrillo, Paris, 1913).
"Maurice Utrillo is the painter of Montmartre. Since Lepine, I believe no artist has been able to render with such acute sensitivity the charm of this little provincial town, isolated on the summit of Paris. Utrillo excels in painting the cracked walls of the old houses. The smallest miserable front takes on in his paintings an extraordinary intensity of colour and life" (L. Libaude, exh. cat., Maurice Utrillo, Paris, 1913).