Rue à Montmartre

Details

With a photo expertise by Gilbert Pétridès, Paris, dated 22.3.1989. The expertise is numbered 20.697. With a further photo expertise by Jean Fabris and Cédric Paillier, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, dated 18.2.2013. The expertise is numbered 5434. Exhibitions: Maîtres Impressionistes et Modernes, Galerie Daniel Malingue, Paris 1986, cat. no.16;Town & County: In Pursuit of Life’s Pleasure, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York 1996, with label on the back of the frame; Long Island Collections, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York 2002, with label on the back of the frame. Provenance: Henri Massart; Galerie Daniel Malingue, Paris; Soufer Gallery, New York 1989; Sotheby’s, New York 10.5.1989, lot 235; private collection, New York, since 2014.

Description

• Utrillo does not depict the main boulevards and monuments of Paris, but simple houses and winding alleys
• The combination of house facades and figures is reminiscent of the theatre
• Freshly coloured depiction using bright blue and red tones Utrillo began to depict cityscapes at a young age. He dedicated his eventful life to painting his beloved Montmartre district, the winding, narrow streets that had become the most important artistic center of Paris in the early 19th century. Throughout his career, Utrillo painted the streets of Montmartre from many different angles and in great detail, rarely focusing on important monuments and buildings. The orderly composition of the house facades and rows of windows combined with a simplified, often flat spatial effect makes this work reminiscent of a theatre set. The people shown strolling through his works are often schematic figures seen from the back. They appear again and again in his pictures, like in the present painting, where they enliven the winter scenery.