after Maurice Utrillo (1883 – 1955)
France: La Cathédrale de Reims
Original vintage poster
100 x 62 cm
Commissioned by the Ministère des Travaux Publics et des Transports and the Commissariat général au Tourisme. Printed in France, by and for the French Government. Printed by Braun & Cie, Mulhouse-Paris.
This poster, featuring a Utrillo painting of Reims Cathedral, was printed by the French tourist board to encourage holidays to France. Utrillo’s depiction of Reims is highly post-impressionist, with thick layers of impasto and an inventive colour palette.
Maurice Utrillo was a French painter who specialised in post-impressionist cityscapes, particularly of Montmartre, where he lived. His mother was Suzanne Valadon, an artist’s model who sat for several French painters, including Renoir. Utrillo’s father is unknown, though the painter Miquel Utrillo acknowledged him as his own some years after his birth. Valedon became a painter herself after several years of modelling, and was mentored by Degas. She encouraged her son to become a painter, and he received positive critical attention in the 1910s, followed by international popularity in the following decade. He was awarded the Cross of the Légion d’Honneur in 1928 and is today known for his poetic depictions of Paris, especially Montmartre. He is buried there, in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent, having suffered from mental illness and alcoholism for most of his life.
Condition: generally very good; a few tiny repaired edge tears.
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