Maurice Utrillo, known as the “son of Paris,” was one of the most outstanding and ingenious French painters of the 20th century. Born in Paris in December 1883, Utrillo was the son of the painter, Suzanne Valadon. At that time, Valadon had been the “spiritual muse” and exclusive model of many big-name artists. As just a few examples, she appears in the paintings of Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas. For the young Utrillo, however, his efforts were overshadowed by the fact that he was a bastard son. His teenage years were haunted by mockery from others. When he was 18, he became an alcoholic and was sent to a sanitarium. To stop Utrillo from wasting his youth, Valadon encouraged him to paint. In Utrillo’s eyes, his mother was a great woman. When he first started painting, he would sign his full name and attach his mother’s family name, “Maurice Utrillo– Valadon,” to show his profound love and respect for her.

Montmartre, a hill to the north of Paris, was a famous site to which artists from around the world visited. It was a quintessential region filled with a Bohemian lifestyle in the early 20th century. Utrillo grew up here under a rich artistic atmosphere. He was deeply attracted by the streets and alleys and also the mountains and villages, fascinated by the old buildings with white-washed walls under green shadows. It is not uncommon for an artist to be closely attached to a particular place. For Paul Gauguin, it was Tahiti; for van Gogh, it was Arles. Utrillo painted various sceneries of Montmartre. His images were tranquil, simple, and beautifully composed. Under the deep autumn or winter sky, windows and doors of the shops on the streets were painted into black squares. Few pedestrians were on the street. Wind blows over the trees, giving out a gloomy atmosphere. He adopted a classical and simple method to simplify the theme of the buildings, forming a semi-abstract realistic style.

Utrillo never attended art school. He was self-taught yet developed mature skills, with a style somewhat resemblant of Camille Pissarro. The auction piece, Avenue Rozée à Sannois , was painted between 1938 and 1980, a period during which he started to emphasize straight lines and a lighter touch of the brush. He softened the thick painting method he had adopted early on and switched to more translucent colors. Unlike his white period from 1910 to 1914, Utrillo favored the works by Pissarro and Alfred Sisley at this time. However, he was not interested in the light shining on the scenery; rather, his interest was in the characteristics of the paints themselves. Avenue Rozée à Sannois is composed using light brush strokes, with the contours of the buildings unclear, staggered and interlaced with the tree branches. Watercolor blooms some red patches, amidst large areas of green. In Utrillo’s work, the busy city image does not seem noisy and unsettling but fresh and tranquil. His classical and simple style makes some art critics categorize his expression techniques as impressionism.