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Lot Essay
Jean Fabris has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
The present work depicts the verdant, rural environs of Montmagny, on the northern outskirts of Paris. Painted circa 1906, Pinson à Montmagny typifies Utrillo's celebrated early series of urban settings from 1904-1908, its assured brushwork and lush, creamy tones to the façade at left presaging the distinctive white period which would soon characterize his work from 1909-1914.
Utrillo's early Montmagny and Montmartre scenes, which would make his reputation, are notable for their balance of vigorous modernity and presumed naiveté. As art critic Edmond Jaloux commented in 1925: "perhaps one is at first surprised by a certain naiveté in his manner of painting, by a certain simplicity in his way of feeling...In point of fact, naiveté and ingeniousness are more apparent than real, however, for one has only to examine with care a canvas by Utrillo to see to what extent one is dealing with a true painter; that is to say, an artist possessing a subtle, varied, and complex sense of color, and making use of admirable materials with which he imparts something magnificently luxurious to the dejected, desperate aspects of modern life" (quoted in A. Tabarant, Utrillo, Paris, 1926, p. 234).
The present work depicts the verdant, rural environs of Montmagny, on the northern outskirts of Paris. Painted circa 1906, Pinson à Montmagny typifies Utrillo's celebrated early series of urban settings from 1904-1908, its assured brushwork and lush, creamy tones to the façade at left presaging the distinctive white period which would soon characterize his work from 1909-1914.
Utrillo's early Montmagny and Montmartre scenes, which would make his reputation, are notable for their balance of vigorous modernity and presumed naiveté. As art critic Edmond Jaloux commented in 1925: "perhaps one is at first surprised by a certain naiveté in his manner of painting, by a certain simplicity in his way of feeling...In point of fact, naiveté and ingeniousness are more apparent than real, however, for one has only to examine with care a canvas by Utrillo to see to what extent one is dealing with a true painter; that is to say, an artist possessing a subtle, varied, and complex sense of color, and making use of admirable materials with which he imparts something magnificently luxurious to the dejected, desperate aspects of modern life" (quoted in A. Tabarant, Utrillo, Paris, 1926, p. 234).