Bidspirit auction | UTRILLO MAURICE: (1883-1955)

UTRILLO MAURICE: (1883-1955) - UTRILLO MAURICE: (1883-1955) French painter. A wonderful Autograph Manuscript, unsigned, twenty-nine pages, folio, Montmartre, Paris, 13th October 1914, in French. Utrillo´s autobiographical manuscript is entitled Histoire de ma jeunesse jusqu'à ce jour ( Story of My Youth to Date ; corrected from Histoire de ma vie ) and comprises twenty short chapters variously titled Premiers souvenirs d'enfance ( ´Early Childhood Memories´ ), J'apprends à lire ( ´Learning to Read´ ), La débâcle ( ´The Debacle´ ), A l'Ecole commerciale ( ´At Business School´ ), Mon séjour à la campagne ( ´My Stay in the Countryside´ ), Histoire plaisante d'un béret blanc ( ´A Funny Story about a White Beret´ ), La pension Plumicart (´ The Plumicart Boarding School´ ), Le Collège Rollin ( ´Rollin College´ ), Les débuts dans le Commerce ( ´My First Steps in Business´ ), Mon séjour au Crédit Lyonnais ( ´My time at Crédit Lyonnais´ ), De Divers emplois qui ne me furent guère profitables ( ´Various Jobs that were of Little Benefit to Me´ ), Passage d'un département à un autre ( ´Moving from One Department to Another´ ), Rentrée à Paris ( ´Returning to Paris´ ), Le fou! ( ´The Madman!´ ), L´art ( ´Art´ ), Retour à la campagne (´ Return to the Countryside´ ), La Nostalgie ( ´Nostalgia´ ), La débauche de Montmartre ( ´The Debauchery of Montmartre´ ), Le pacte de l'Art ( ´The Pact of Art´ ), La maison de santé ( ´The Nursing Home´ ), Mon voyage en Bretagne ( ´My Trip to Brittany´ ), Mon voyage en Corse ( ´My Trip to Corsica´ ), Pétition ( ´Petition´ ), Résultat ( ´Result´ ) and Epilogue, Hommage à Monsieur César Gay ( ´Epilogue, Tribute to Mr. César Gay´ ). The artist begins by paying a touching tribute to his mother, the artist Suzanne Valadon, ´ Ma mère une sainte femme, que dans le fond de mon âme je bénis et vénère à l'égal d'une Déesse, une créature sublime de Bonté, de Droiture, de Charité, d'Abnégation, d'Intelligence, de Courage et de Dévouement, une femme d'Élite, peut-être la plus grande Lumière Picturale du Siècle et du Monde, cette femme noble m'éleva toujours dans les préceptes les plus stricts de la Morale, du Droit et du Devoir. Hélas! que n'ai-je suivi ses sincères conseils...´ (Translation: ´ My mother, a saintly woman, whom I bless and revere in the depths of my soul as a goddess, a sublime creature of kindness, righteousness, charity, self-sacrifice, intelligence, courage and devotion, a woman of the elite, perhaps the greatest pictorial light of the century and the world, this noble woman always raised me in the strictest precepts of morality, law and duty. Alas! Why did I not follow her sincere advice...´ ), adding that he ´ laissé entraîné sur la voie du Vice, insensiblement et par la fréquentation de créatures immondes et lubriques, sirènes gluantes aux yeux qu'embrase la Perfidie´ (Translation: ´ allowed himself to be led down the path of vice, imperceptibly and through frequenting filthy and lecherous creatures, clingy sirens with eyes ablaze with perfidy´ ), further writing of his good academic results, the ´ vexations multiples´ he suffered at school and in boarding school, his first job at Crédit Lyonnais, and more. Utrillo´s manuscript also displays touches of humour, particularly in the chapter titled Le Fou! where he light-heartedly writes that ´ à la suite de réitérées et nombreuses ingurgitations d'alcool dues au noir marasme´ (Translation: ´following repeated and numerous bouts of alcohol consumption due to the dark slump´ ) he sank into alcoholism and had to be admitted to hospital ´ pour se faire calmer les nerfs´ (Translation: ´to calm his nerves´ ) and then, after ´ végété pendant quelques temps dans une inactivité fâcheuse´ (Translation: ´ vegetating for some time in unfortunate inactivity´ ) he picked up some tubes of paint and began to paint, admitting that ´ Mes débuts furent assez difficiles´ (Translation ´ My beginnings were quite difficult´ ), referring to an encounter with a famous patron who bought his works, and declaring ´ Je me mis à produire force œuvres remarquables qui excitèrent l'envie de mes confrères´ (Translation: ´ I began to produce many remarkable works that aroused the envy of my colleagues´ ). Accompanying the manuscript are six original gouache illustrations by George Tiret-Bognet which bring to life several events in Utrillo´s autobiography. The six works are all signed by the artist and executed on separate 4to sheets (approximately 24 x 35 cm) of paper, most with captions at the foot, the first ´ Tu vas pas te débiner, j'en ai mare de ton béret blanc´ ( ´You're not going to run away, I'm fed up with your white beret´ ) depicting the young Utrillo being scolded by three women as he runs away, a baguette under one arm, the second captioned ´ Monsieur, Monsieur...je crois que j'ai sali mon pantalon´ ( ´ Sir, sir... I think I've dirtied my trousers´ ) and depicting the pupil Utrillo standing in front of his desk while the teacher, seized by St.