The Church of Saint-Séverin

c. 1913

Maurice Utrillo

Artist, French, 1883 - 1955

We look along a street lined with cool white and cream-yellow buildings and a tall church steeple in this vertical painting. A four-story building stands closest to us, filling the left side and reaching off the top edge. The ground floor is painted shamrock green, and the three windows on the floors above have low black railings. The side of the building facing us is tinged with butter yellow. A few olive-green shutters line the left edge, and several colorful rectangles on its first two floors suggest posters. The building faces a sliver of an equally tall building on our right. Two delicate streetlights stand on either side of the street, which angles sharply into the distance to our right. The rest of the buildings along it are different heights with copper or sage-green roofs. The church is the third building down from us, and it takes up most of the rest of the block. Tall, pointed, arched windows painted in black and brown line its side. More dark windows pierce the steeple, which rises against the muted laurel-green sky. A handful of people stand near a tall building on the corner beyond the church, and wide chimneys studded with coral-colored chimney pots rise in the distance. The artist signed the lower left, “Maurice Utrillo. V.”
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 73 x 54 cm (28 3/4 x 21 1/4 in.)
    framed: 91.4 x 72.4 x 5.7 cm (36 x 28 1/2 x 2 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.222

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Pierre Decourcelle [1856-1926], Paris; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16 June 1926, no. 80); purchased by (Galerie Tanner, Zurich). (Galerie Le Portique, Paris); sold 1929 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1943

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, 1943-1952 (extended loan), unnumbered catalogue, repro. p. 56

1952

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1952, no. 63, repro.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1943

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1943:, 56, repro.

1952

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1952 (2nd ed., 1960; rev. ed., 1965): 63, repro.

1960

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1960 (2nd ed.): 65, repro.

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 26.

1965

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965 (rev. ed.): 85, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 133.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 121, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 356, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 415, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: Maurice Utrillo. V.

Wikidata ID

Q20191735

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