Moulin de La Galette à Montmartre

Details

With a photo expertise by Gilbert Pétridès, Paris, dated 14.2.1990. The expertise is numbered 21.579. With a further photo expertise by Jean Fabris and Cédric Paillier, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, dated 17.12.2009. The expertise is numbered 5318. Exhibitions:Maurice Utrillo, 130e anniversaire de sa naissance, Takashimaya Art Gallery, Kyoto et. al. 2013. Provenance: collection of Mr. Mahboubeh Soufer;Christie’s, New York 15.11.1989, lot 438; Galerie Pétridès, Paris; private collection, New York.

Descrizione

• The “Moulin de La Galette” was a popular motif that Utrillo painted again and again
• This work displays the masterful use of the colour white for which the artist was famed
• Atmospheric work in pale, spring-like colours
Maurice Utrillo was born in 1883 in the bohemian district of Montmartre in Paris as the son of the eighteen-year-old painter Suzanne Valadon. It remains unclear who his father was; he received his last name in 1891 from his adoptive father, the art critic Miquel Utrillo. Inspired by his mother, he taught himself to paint. He also signs his works with a “V” for Valadon, his mother’s name. Utrillo found the majority of the motifs for his paintings in his immediate surroundings in Montmartre, where he grew up. He became a well-known painter in the district and soon specialized in charming cityscapes. Travels to Corsica and Brittany in 1912 literally shed light on his work. He thereafter attempted to capture the reflections of light using a white pigment that he mixed himself. He would become famous for this white, which he mixed with plaster and cement. Colours lightened with white also dominate the present work: in his painting, Utrillo depicts the Moulin de Blute-Fin, which is located in the Montmartre district, bathed in bright spring light. The painter also mixed a lot of white into the delicate blue sky and the sandy coloured street in front of the mill. Utrillo repeatedly depicted the La Galette mills at different times of the year and from different perspectives. There were once several mills on Montmartre Hill that were used to grind wheat and flowers and to press fresh grapes. At the time this painting was created, only two of the original 12 mills still existed: the “Le Blute-Fin” mill, built in 1622, and the “Le Radet” mill from 1717. Both belonged to the “Moulin de la Galette” in Montmartre and were located in the upper Rue Lepic in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. At Utrillo’s time there was a publicly accessible viewing platform on the roof of the “Blute Fin” mill. The “Friends of Old Montmartre” association saved the mill from destruction in 1915. In 1924, its owner moved the mill to the corner of Girardon and Lepic streets. The current name, Moulin de la Galette, comes from the galette, a small black bread made by the Debray millers, who owned the mill in the 19th century. It was originally sold with a glass of milk, and from 1830 onwards with a glass of wine. The tasty bread became so popular that it later gave the mill its name. Since the 19th century, Le Moulin de la Galette has provided a welcome diversion for Parisians seeking entertainment. When the nearby fields were replaced by homes and factories, the owner converted one of the windmills into a viewing tower and opened a dance hall next to it. Alongside Utrillo, the Moulin de la Galette was also immortalised by Renoir, Van Gogh, Manet and Pissarro, and many others.