Maurice Utrillo (1883 - 1955)

He was a French painter who was noted for his depictions of the houses and streets of the Montmartre of Paris. Born out of wedlock, Utrillo was the son of the model and artist Suzanne Valadon. His father was not known, and he was given his name by a Spanish art critic, Miguel Utrillo. He had no instruction as an artist apart from that given by his mother, who herself was untutored. When, as an adolescent, he became an alcoholic, his mother encouraged him to take up painting as therapy. Despite his frequent relapses into alcoholism, painting became Utrillo’s obsession.