Rue Norvins

Born on Poteau street in Montmartre, Utrillo began painting when he was eighteen. He was the illegitimate child of Suzanne Valadou, who posed as a model for Lautrec, and Degas, and later became inter herself. He spent a lonely boyhood neglected by his mother who lived recklessly. He turned to alcohol to escape the loneliness and became an alcoholic in his mid-teens. As part of his therapy, he began painting. Unwillingly as he was when he started painting, painting soon took hold of his heart and mind, and he reached the peak of his productivity after only several years.