Clara Peck

Loading the Wagon

Initialed Lower Left

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A rustic 20th Century oil showing a man and his hay cart making their way down a dirt track as two ladies watch them go to the left. The artist has initialed ...

Maurice Valadon ( Utrillo ) 1883 -1955, was a French painter who was born in the Parisienne quarter of Montmartre and is one of the very few French impressionist painters to have been born there. His mother was Suzanne Valadon and she was also a very well known French painter who was a model for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and many others, she bore her son Maurice but the father was never acknowledged and consequently a friend Miquel Utrillo adopted the boy and gave him his name stating that he would be glad to put his name to the work of either Renoir or Degas, however it is well known Utrillo was not the true paternal party. Maurice was effectively taught by his mother to paint and she was self taught, having sat for some of the greatest impressionist painters of the time, where the son and mother differed was on the subject , he predominantly painted suburban and city scenes from plein air and sometimes from memory also painting pictures from the view from his window. His style and manner was maintained throughout his career, however he suffered from regular mental disturbance and eventually in the mid 1930's he moved with his wife to Le Vesinet which is just outside Paris where he effectively retired. There is an abundance of biographical detail to be found on the internet and it would do a great injustice here to the artist to attempt his biography. This painting contains various mannerisms and hidden information which we are given to understand confirms this painting to be by Utrillo himself, however without a clear and decisive signature we have listed it as ' attributed ', which we are certain to prove to be Utrillo himself, the work is monogrammed 'V' which is further the identification of this work, we believe the 'V' stands for Valadon, he signed his works Maurice Utrillo V...