Montmartre Museum

When I was in Montmartre on Saturday, I also went to the Montmartre Museum.  The museum itself it not really very big.  There are several buildings on the site, but only one is the actual Museum.  There is a large garden and what we in America would call a "green space."  The whole thing backs up to the Vinyard, which I showed in my last post.  The views out the back of the Museum are quite amazing.  They ask you not to take pictures inside the Museum, but I took some outside.

                                           This is the entrance.

This is a list of the artists, etc., who have lived in the buildings comprising the museum, when the buildings  were residences.

                                     

You'll notice Utrillo's name on the list above.  As I explained, he is one of current obsessions.  Also on the list is Suzanne Valadon, who is actually his mother and another of my current obsessions.  She started out as an artists model, and was the model for many painting by many artists over a long period of time, including Renoir, Degas, Lautrec, Modigliani, and others.  Apparently she had affairs with many of them, and quite a serious affair with Lautrec.  While being a model for all these artists, she also took the opportunity to study their painting techniques.  She was a brilliant artist in her own right and subsequently obtained much success as an artist.  I, personally, love her work.    She also had a brief affair with Erik Satie who lived  just next door.  The most scandalous affair was, not an affair really, but a long term relationship and eventual marriage to her son Utrillo's friend Andre Utter, who was over 20 years her junior. She is known for her paintings of nude woman and took the oportunity to use her lover, Utter, as a model to do male nudes as well....a first for a female artist.

Below are pictures of the artist's studio which is on the Museum property.  Again....a fabulous light-filled space any artist would love to have.  I only wish it had been open to the public.  Years after Renoir lived and worked there, the threesome of Utrillo, his mother Suzanne and Andre Utter all lived and worked there.

I thought I'd try to find some examples of some of the paintings I've been talking about.  Just one example of the work of these fabulous artists.

In my last post I went on and on about the Renoir Bal du Moulin de la Galette painting.  I actually went to the Musee d'Orsay today (Sunday) and saw it.  Imagine, this is what was up there on top of the hill, in the pictures from the last post, in the shadow of those windmills.  The painting  was so amazing....huge and interesting and so light-filled, one just can't imagine how he captured it.  I stood there like a dummy in front of it and wept.  This little picture really does not give the full effect.

The is one of the male nude painting Suzanne did, using her lover, Andre Utter, as model.  Quite scandalous for a woman painter at the time.  I think Andre looked pretty good!

Suzanne was famous for her painting of nude women, but I really love her still life paintings of flowers.  If you are interested in her work, go on line, there's lots of pictures.

Here is one of the Utrillo painting of the Lapin Angile.  He did many.  It is similar to the one I have the print of at home.