Maurice Utrillo: Difference between revisions

Utrillo was the son of the artist [[Suzanne Valadon]] (born Marie-Clémentine Valadon), who was then an eighteen-year-old artist's model. She never revealed who was the father of her child; speculation exists that he was the offspring from a liaison with an equally young amateur painter named Boissy, or with the well-established painter [[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes|Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes]], or even with [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]].<ref name="The New Yorker - 7 February 2012 - Renoir at The Frick: Go See Dance at Bougival">{{cite news|url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/renoir-at-the-frick-go-see-dance-at-bougival|title=Renoir at The Frick: Go See "Dance at Bougival"|last=Peter Schjeldahl|author-link=Peter Schjeldahl|date=7 February 2012|work=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=13 September 2014}}</ref> (see below under ''Utrillo's Paternity''). In 1891 a Spanish artist, {{Ill|Miquel Utrillo|es}} (Miquel Utrillo i Morlius), signed a legal document acknowledging paternity, although the question remains as to whether he was in fact the child's father.<ref>{{sfn |Warnod |1981, |p.=48.</ref>}}

Valadon, who became a model after a fall from a [[trapeze]] ended her chosen career as a circus [[acrobatics|acrobat]],<ref>{{sfn |Warnod |1981, |p.=13.</ref>}} found that posing for [[Berthe Morisot]], Renoir, [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]], and others provided her with an opportunity to study their techniques. She taught herself to paint, and when Toulouse-Lautrec introduced her to [[Edgar Degas]], he became her mentor. Eventually, she became a peer of the artists she had posed for.

Meanwhile, her mother was left to raise the young Maurice, who soon showed a troubling inclination toward [[truancy]] and [[alcoholism]].<ref>{{sfn |Warnod |1981, |pp.=57–59.</ref>}} When a mental illness took hold of the 21-year-old Utrillo in 1904, his mother encouraged him to take up painting. He soon showed real artistic talent. With no training beyond what his mother taught him, he drew and painted what he saw in Montmartre. After 1910 his work attracted critical attention, and by 1920 he was internationally acclaimed. In 1928, the French government awarded him the Cross of the [[Légion d'honneur]].<ref>{{sfn |Warnod |1981, |p.=85.</ref> }}Throughout his life, however, he was interned in mental asylums repeatedly.