Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) - Le Danseur Mexicain

Beautiful, special, rare and unusual work as a theme, created by the French painter Maurice Utrillo, the work depicts a Mexican dancer according to the title of the piece, who is represented from the artist's spirit, as if about to begin a dance.

The artist wanted to represent in the finest detail the pose and the features of the man, whom he may have represented in person while painting him, during a theatrical performance of the Ballets Russes, whose theater owner was the stage director Sergej Pavlovich Diaghilev.

Sergej Pavlovich Diaghilev, called Serge (in Russian Сергей Павлович Дягилев; Selišči, 19 March 1872 – Lido di Venezia, 19 August 1929), was a Russian impresario of theatre and artistic director.

Organizer and artistic director of dance performances, he is best known for having founded the company of the Ballets Russes, from which began the artistic careers of many dancers and choreographers, as well as that of the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

His ability to discover talent, his refined taste and his ability to bring together artists with different interests allowed the world of ballet to regain a sense of completeness and seriousness which we can trace to the present day.


( "The Mexican Dancer" )

Technique of creation: watercolor and gouache on paper applied to canvas, hand-signed by the artist with the initials M, U, V, and dated 1925.

Exhibitions:

- Hammer Galleries, New York, exhibition of Lucie Valore, Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo, in 1958; exhibition from May 13 to June 7, 1958.

- From November 7 to 27, 1958, personal collection of Mrs. Maurice Utrillo-Valore, Lille, 106 rue Nationale, Galerie des Arts, No. 2, titled:
"Landscape of Italy and People of the Country".


Provenance :

- Collection Madame Lucie Valore, Paris ;

- Hammer Galleries, New York, exhibition of Lucie Valore, Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo, in 1958 ;

- Collection of Mr. George E. Haddaway, Dallas ;

- Private collection.


Bibliography :

Oeuvre present in the Hammer Galleries, New York exhibition and sale catalogue, exhibition from May 13 to June 7, 1958.

"The Complete Works of Maurice Utrillo, Volume IV" by Paul Pétridès, Paris, 1966, no. AG 157, reproduced and described on pages 184-185.

Sale :

- December 15, 1971, New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, lot 64, repr. NB.

The expertise of the Maurice Utrillo association is also attached to the work, while the certificate of authenticity will be the purchaser's responsibility.


Dimensions of the work: 25.5 x 15 cm.

External dimensions: 35.5 x 26.3 cm.

The work will be sold with its frame, it will be shipped, well packaged and protected, with insured and trackable shipping.


Maurice Utrillo (Paris, December 26, 1883 – Dax, November 5, 1955), French post-impressionist painter, was the son of Suzanne Valadon and his stepfather was André Utter.

The three artists formed the so-called:
« Trio infernal », this name was given to them because they painted exclusively in Montmartre and belonging to the Montmartre school, with Toulouse Lautrec, of whom Suzanne Valadon was his muse; Amédée Modigliani; Pierre-Auguste Renoir; Chaïm Soutine; Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

Maurice Utrillo was a faithful friend of Modigliani and they often went to the cabarets or bars of Montmartre to drink and share ideas about painting and the art of that period.

Around 1918, Utrillo met Lucie Valore, because with her husband, Robert Pauwels, a art collector, she buys the works of the three artists and Suzanne Valadon introduces Utrillo to Lucie Valore and they marry in May 1935.

Maurice Utrillo was one of the most important painters of Montmartre, as he managed to reflect in his art the neighborhood of Montmartre and the social reality of the time, conveying to the viewer who looks at his works, in a poetic and sentimental tone, what the artist felt."