Utrillo - Saint-Pierre Church

This is Maurice Utrillo's painting of Saint-Pierre church in Montmartre. Known as the painter of Montmartre, he returned again and again to the neighborhood, and the church in this scene is likewise found there.

The building in the foreground is Saint-Pierre church; just behind it, a dome and bell tower are faintly visible. At first they look like part of the same church, but they actually belong to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica at the top of Montmartre hill. Utrillo deliberately arranged the composition so the two structures would appear as one, which is why Sacré-Cœur—usually painted tall and monumental—here sits level with Saint-Pierre, giving the scene an unusual feel.

Utrillo also mixed glue and plaster powder into his paint to capture the weathered texture of the walls, and he is said to have applied it to the canvas with a knife, much like a construction worker spreading plaster. He had used plaster in his paintings since the White Period and, at one point, wanted to work with nothing but plaster—but it tended to crack as it dried, a problem that reportedly gave him constant trouble.