Maurice Utrillo

Galerie Paul Pétridès, Paris
Vilardo Miguel Paez (sale: Sotheby's, London, June 28, 1972, lot 56)
Private Collection (purchased at the above sale)

Paul Pétridès, L'Œuvre complet de Maurice Utrillo, vol. III, Paris, 1969, no. 1319, illustrated p. 33

The canvas is not lined. UV examination reveals a small area of retouching to the centre of the lower edge and an area of ambiguous fluorescence to the lower right corner below the signature. There are some fine lines of craquelure to some of the thicker pigments and the canvas is very slightly undulating at the corners. There is some frame rubbing to parts of the extreme edges. Otherwise this work is in overall very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present works depicts the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Royan, in Royan, a coastal town on the Atlantic. Utrillo excels in his use of spatial perspective to highlight the imposing structure of the Notre-Dame de Royan over the low-lying buildings that surround this cathedral. Maurice Vlaminck wrote about Utrillo's spiritual intention in his artistic employment of churches and cathedrals: ‘The most spectacular paintings are perhaps certain cathedrals which contain a true mystic power. When Utrillo paints the imposing bulk of a basilica, or the pointed spire of the village chapel, he unconsciously expresses the love that man feels toward the Creator" (quoted in Gustave von Groschwitz, Maurice Utrillo (exhibition catalogue), Pittsburgh, 1963, p. 4).

According to Carlo Santini, ‘Utrillo is a poet: the lonely, isolated poet of a reality that is sometimes trivial in the extreme, sometimes majestic and sumptuous. Utrillo has no need of any special figurative setting: walls, grilles, hoardings, trees, lamp-posts, cobblestones, rows of houses, cathedral towers, pavements, fences, factory chimneys, and great dark windows all take their place in his work with their own peculiar expressiveness. These and many other objects are imbued with feeling, sometimes with drama; they suggest the passage of time, the waning of life, the desperate melancholy of certain times and seasons” (Carlo Santini, Modern Landscape Painting, London, 1972, p. 53).

Within ten years of the present work being painted the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Royan, along with the majority of the town, was destroyed during an allied bombing at the very end of World War II. In its place a new cathedral, constructed entirely of concrete, opened its doors in 1958.