Lot 3242 - A185 Impressionist & Modern Art - Friday, 29. June 2018, 04.00 PM
MAURICE UTRILLO
(Paris 1883–1955 Dax)
La Cathédrale de Reims en flammes (Marne). 1914.
Oil on panel.
Signed lower right: Maurice, Utrillo. V., dated lower left: September 1914., as well as inscribed lower centre CATHEDRALE DE REIMS.
60 x 41 cm.
Provenance: Private collection Basel.
Exhibition: Paris 1959, Cent tableaux par Utrillo, Galerie Charpentier, no. 62 (with label on the reverse).
Literature:
- Fabris, Jean/Pailler, Cédric: L'oeuvre complet de Maurice Utrillo, vol. I, Paris 2009, p. 102, no. 48 (with ill.).
- Pétridès, Paul: L'oeuvre complet de Maurice Utrillo, vol. II, Paris 1962, p. 66, no. 491 (with ill.).
- Carco, Francis: Maurice Utrillo. Legende und Wirklichkeit, Zürich 1958, p. 101 (with ill.).
- Tabarant, Adolphe: Utrillo, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris 1926, p. 148 (with ill.).
The September 1914 bombing of the Cathedral of Reims profoundly shocked Utrillo, whose favourite motif was that of the church.
About the present work, Francis Carco wrote: "The news from the newspapers put him, as witnesses testify, in an excitement that made him fear for his life. He thought only of the flames, of the eerie collapse of this vast conflagration and, as if a calamity like this had struck him in his heart and soul, he showed symptoms so disquieting for several days that one did not know what to make of it. At first he drank to suppress the ghastly vision, but then the more he drank, the sharper, the more powerful it was before his eyes and the poor wretch, tormented by the growing horror, found redemption only when he had transposed this vision into that moving work, upon which the cathedral, bathed in fire, clouded with smoke, rises in tragic heat before us. Reims in flames – the name of the picture – remains for me one of those masterpieces in which the artist completely exposes his true personality. In it, you can feel him tremble, shake, experience, elated by love and compassion, filled with anger. "
CHF 60 000 / 80 000 | (€ 61 860 / 82 470)
Sold for CHF 84 500 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.