Perls Gallery, New York
Private Collection (acquired from the above circa 2000)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Georges Bernier, Maurice Utrillo, Cremona, 1980, no. 25, illustrated n.p.

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Dominated by the imposing form of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, Rue Chevalier de la Barre, Montmartre depicts a scene of paramount importance for Maurice Utrillo. Sacré-Cœur was one of his most significant recurring motifs, and the artist depicted the glorious architecture of the church throughout the changing seasons and at differing times of day. Construction on the Basilica commenced in 1875 as a symbol of resurgence and hope following the events of the Franco-Prussian War five years earlier, and the monument quickly became one of the most recognisable and revered Parisian landmarks. Within the present work Utrillo depicts Sacré-Cœur from a striking and somewhat atypical viewpoint, so that the domes of the church soar into the sky with dramatic grandeur. Renowned for his atmospheric and subtly nostalgic views of Paris, Utrillo immortalised a timeless realisation of the city within his paintings over the course of several decades. Born in Montmartre, the area exerted a strong emotional pull on Utrillo, and he painted its streets, windmills and cafés in painstaking detail throughout his life. Alfred Werner comments on the artist’s remarkable ability to distil the hidden essence of these familiar surroundings: ‘Utrillo’s works make it perfectly clear to a visitor to the hill of Montmartre […] that it is an artist’s task to reveal to us an aspect of his subject matter that escapes us in ordinary experience. Matter-of-fact and unromantic as Utrillo may have seemed to be while labouring at a piece of canvas or cardboard, he was actually a poet who achieved an emotional equilibrium, an inward harmony, that is only rarely attained […] The painter-poet, singling out a motif, leads us out of confusion to the highest state of mind – clarity’ (Alfred Werner, Utrillo, London, 1981, p. 40).



The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Utrillo-Valadon.