MAURICE UTRILLO (Paris, 1883-Dax, 1955) Lot n° 39

Prunelli-di-Fiumorbo, Corsica The presbytery October 1924 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right titled, dated and signed on the back 54 x 65 cm Provenance Former collection Mme Lepine, Paris Sale Paris 2010 Private collection, Paris Exhibition Exhibition label on the back 1936, n° 24096, Utrillo, Prunelli di Fiumorbo, Corsica, SL.W Bibliography Adolphe Basler, Maurice Utrillo, Ed. G. Grès et Cie, 1931, reproduced in black and white on page 78 Paul Pétridès, L'OEuvre complet de Maurice Utrillo, Paris, 1974, tome V, n° 2719, reproduced on p. 238 under the title Église corse. Certificate of authenticity Jean Fabris, dated 15 June 2010. Dated October 1924, this hilly and green landscape, structured around the Presbytery of Prunellidi- Fiumorbo, is one of the last works of the rare "coloured period" (1915-1924) of Maurice Utrillo. The painter, seduced by the southern light, had adopted this warm palette during a previous stay in Corsica. His interpretation of the same place, perhaps inspired by a postcard (fig. 1), shows a ten-year evolution between his "white period" and his lyricism of the 1920s that we are dealing with here (fig. 2). While galleries and salons were competing for his paintings in Paris in 1923-1924, Utrillo went to Haute-Corse to recharge his batteries. He had stayed there with his mother Suzanne Valadon and André Utter in 1913 and had kept idyllic memories of it: "Corsica is a picturesque and pleasant country to visit. Nothing is missing, the sea, the mountains mainly and the forest, the scrubland where many famous brigands became famous. I remember some apparently, and perhaps in reality, innocent women who were somewhat pleasing to me. In Corsica, the wine is good, the food, though spicy, is drinkable and superior to that of many Parisian restaurants" (unpublished autobiography quoted in Jean Fabris, OEuvre complet I, 2009, p. 23).