(Paris 1883–1955 Dax)
Restaurant à Limeil Brevannes, c. 1919, signed Maurice. Utrillo. V., oil on board, 45 x 60.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to the Association Maurice Utrillo, Pierrefitte sur Seine for the kind assistance with the cataloguing of this work.

Jean and Gilbert Pétridès confirmed the authenticity of this work in 1997.

Provenance:
Galerie Bernier, Paris
European Private Collection, 1937
Sotheby’s London, 25 June 1997, lot 152
European Private Collection
Christie’s London, 7 December 1999 (certificate available), lot 177
European Private Collection

Exhibited:

Japan, Maurice Utrillo exhibition, Oita, Oita Prefectural Art Museum, August – September 1998; Kyoto, Eki Kyoto Museum, September-October 1998
Saga, Saga Prefectural Art Museum, October - November 1998; Chiba, Sogo Museum of Art, January – February 1999, exh. cat. p. 37 with ill.

On a particularly boring day, I had a clever but unfortunate inspiration. I seized a piece of cardboard, some tubes of tint and petroleum base – since I lacked real oil – and, confronting a typical Montmartre street corner, I suddenly found myself a practitioner of this difficult and thankless art of painting.
Maurice Utrillo