Biography

Maurice Utrillo was born on December 26, 1883 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for La vie dramatique de Maurice Utrillo (1949), Si Paris nous était conté (1956) and Rendez-vous avec Maurice Chevalier n°3 (1957). He was married to Lucie Valore. He died on November 5, 1955 in Paris, France.

Painter who specialized in cityscapes. His mother, Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), was a self-taught artist who had modeled for Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Suffered from mental illness and alcoholism his whole adult life. By age 50 he was too unstable to work outdoors and had to paint his trademark cityscapes as viewed from windows, postcards, or from memory.

Sets and costumes for the ballet sequence in the MGM musical An American in Paris (1951) were based on the styles of six famous French painters: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Vincent Van Gogh (actually Dutch), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Raoul Dufy, and Maurice Utrillo. When the film was produced Dufy and Utrillo were still alive; they died in 1953 and 1955, respectively.

Was born out of wedlock and his mother never revealed who the father was. In 1891 painter Miquel Utrillo signed a legal document acknowledging paternity, although the question remains as to whether he was in fact the child's father. On the subject of Utrillo's birth Mexican artist Diego Rivera recalled hearing this joke in Paris in 1913:

"After Maurice was born to Suzanne Valadon, she went to Renoir, for whom she had modeled nine months previously. Renoir looked at the baby and said, 'He can't be mine, the color is terrible!' Next she went to Degas, for whom she had also modeled. 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!'".