Lapin Agile in Winter

ART AND IMAGES IN PSYCHIATRY

SECTION EDITOR: JAMES C. HARRIS, MD Lapin Agile in Winter

Ah, Montmartre, with its provincial corners and its bohemian ways...Iwould be so at ease near you, sitting in my room, composing a motif of white houses or all other things. Utrillo to César Gay from the Villejuif asylum, 19161(p6)

AURICE UTRILLO (1883-1955) WAS BORN ON instruction, and he began to demonstrate real talent. Relieved, December 26 in the Montmartre quarter of and considering him cured, his mother took him back to Mont- Paris, France. He began to paint as occupa- martre, thinking that she could return to her own work as an art- tional therapy under the tutelage of his mother ist. Soon Maurice was drinking again and getting into fights, of- to divert him from alcoholism.2 Reluctant at ten returning home beaten and bruised. first,M he gradually began to paint what he saw around him. His As his talent was recognized, rather than serve as a distraction cityscapes (city streets, favorite parts of Montmartre, and churches) from alcohol, his paintings were often exchanged for drinks. Each delighted the man in the street and intrigued the connoisseur. day he would vow to remain sober, yet by day’s end, he would be Although he was surrounded by the founders of modern ab- overcome by a craving for alcohol. He would drink alone and be- stract art, he recreated the city around him by realistically pre- come agitated and threatening. His mother continually rescued senting simplified images of familiar scenes. His work has a cer- him after his bouts of drinking and brought him home, seeking tain calmness and a nostalgic vitality about it, suggesting that there hospital admission as a last resort. When he painted outside on might indeed be something therapeutic in his painting. a Montmartre street, children taunted him, calling him Litrillo be- Yet his life was anything but peaceful. He was the offspring of cause of the liters of wine he drank. Workmen and their families a liaison between a teenage model and artist, Suzanne Valadon,3 thought him mad, and he would respond emphatically, “I am not and, it is proposed, a young clerk, amateur painter, and chronic mad; I am an alcoholic.”2 He was repeatedly admitted to psychi- alcoholic named Maurice Boissy. However, his paternity is not atric hospitals or private clinics at Sannois, Villejuif, Pincus, and known, and others propose that his father was Pierre Puvis de Cha- Ivry,amongothers.Hismothersoughtoutsupervisors,buthewould vannes or Auguste Renoir. Boissy is suggested when his alcohol- escape their care. He attempted suicide on at least one occasion, ism is discussed, in keeping with the belief at the time that alco- pounding his head against a wall in prison. Finally, after several holism is hereditary,4 but when his talent is at issue, the proposed aggressive outbursts and sexually exposing himself to women who father is Puvis or Renoir. Yet Maurice was named Utrillo after the were passing on the street, he was admitted to the hospital and Spanish critic and writer Miguel Utrillo, another of his mother’s told that he would be permanently committed to a mental insti- lovers. In an act of kindness, Miguel Utrillo accepted paternity, af- tution. He was released only with the understanding that he have ter being assured that Maurice would maintain his French citizen- permanent supervision. His last admission was in 1924, but the ship, when his mother’s fiancé, Paul Mousis, refused to adopt him. supervision was maintained for the rest of his life. Maurice was an immature, moody child with a difficult tem- Utrillo painted the Lapin Agile (“nimble rabbit”), a popular perament who was indulged by his mother and grandmother, who cabaret in Montmartre frequented by artists, hundreds of times. largely raised him. Described as docile, conscientious, studious, Lapin Agile in Winter (cover) depicts the popular cabaret at the and uncommunicative, he cowered before bullies, which pro- corner of the rue Saint Vincent and the rue des Saules, on the north- voked them into beating him.5 At other times, he was capricious ern slope of the Butte Montmartre, in the colors of the rainbow. and violent, smashing whatever he could lay his hands on dur- Unlike Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, he painted city scenes, never ing his outbursts. His grandmother used the peasant remedy of the inside of the cabaret. The buildings instill a sense of solidity red wine to calm him when he was disruptive as a child. and calm. The wall on the right is that of St Vincent’s cemetery, Maurice was 8 years old when his name was formally changed where Utrillo was later buried in his beloved Montmartre. to Utrillo. He objected to being named for someone who was never As Utrillo grew older, religion became a critical part of his life. part of his life, at one point writing a plaintive letter to Miguel He had been preoccupied with Joan of Arc as a child, and his in- about never seeing him. Maurice adored his mother and initially terest grew as he aged. He was baptized at age 50 years and, when insisted that he was a Valadon and refused to use the name Utrillo. he married at age 52, built a chapel in his home. He spent the As an adult, he compromised and signed his work Maurice Utrillo last years of his life carefully supervised by his wife in a subur- V (for Valadon). Issues about his identity persisted throughout ban Paris residence. His days were spent painting or praying in his life. After his mother settled down to a routine life with Paul his chapel. When interviewing Utrillo at the end of his life, the Mousis, Maurice was well cared for and had no material worries; interviewer found that he kept a life-size photograph of his mother however, he remained immature and temperamental. In his early in his studio. Utrillo said that no day went by without his think- teens, he was successful in school, but later in adolescence, he ing of her and of his longing to return to Montmartre. began to drink and was abusing alcohol by age 15 years. He was withdrawn from school the following year and failed in a succes- James C. Harris, MD sion of jobs as an apprentice in several banks and business firms, hitting a supervisor over the head with an umbrella at his last job. REFERENCES At age 18 years, he was admitted to St Anne’s psychiatric hos- 1. Coughlan R. The Wine of Genius: A Life of Maurice Utrillo. New York, NY: Harper pital for his alcoholism. Discharged home with supervision, & Brothers; 1950. he did not drink but was idle and uninterested in any activity. 2. De Polnay P. Enfant Terrible: The Life and World of Maurice Utrillo V. New York, His physicians suggested to his mother that he might paint to dis- NY: William Morrow & Co; 1969. 3. Harris J. The Hangover (Gueule de Bois). Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62:824. tract him from future use of alcohol. Initially he refused, but un- 4. Bynum WF. Alcoholism and degeneration in 19th century European medicine and der the threat of readmission, he relented. With persistence, his psychiatry. Br J Addict. 1984;79:59-70. mother won him over, offering him her palette and providing art 5. Warnod J. Maurice Utrillo V. New York, NY: Crown Publishers; 1983.

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