Two art enthusiasts from Angoulême are launching an appeal to Corsican residents to help enrich an upcoming exhibition about painter Maurice Utrillo, who spent several months on the Mediterranean island in 1913. Pamela de Montleau and her friend Philippe Cassereau are working to trace the artist's footsteps for an exhibition planned for next year in Angoulême, seeking information about Utrillo's time in Corsica between the Balagne, Nebbiu, and Central Corsica regions.
The project began somewhat by chance earlier this year when Montleau, an art enthusiast and investigative soul who works for a travel guide publishing house, received a text from Cassereau while in Paris. "I'm in Paris, coming back from a meeting, and I receive a text from a friend, Philippe Cassereau, who suggests we go see an exhibition of Suzanne Valadon, Utrillo's mother," Montleau explained. "He himself married a woman from Charente and lived in Angoulême where he got married. He painted the region, the city ramparts, the churches. The idea to create an exhibition around his painting came just like that."
Utrillo's own words capture his arrival on the island: "I left towards the end of that year 1913 for a distant and exotic destination. I had set my sights on Corsica, a wild and arid country." The painter landed in Ajaccio and from there made his way to Belgodère, where Montleau believes "he took lodging with Monsieur Bernet who rented out rooms." From this base, Utrillo made frequent excursions throughout the Cortenais region, Nebbiu, and Castagniccia areas, exploring the diverse landscapes that would influence his work.
Montleau, a Charente native who loves the small stories hidden within larger narratives, feels a connection between her own attachment to territory and that of the painter who, a century earlier, loved to represent small pieces of France that many people overlooked. "It was an opportunity to highlight our territory," she said. However, she has no intention of stopping there, recognizing Utrillo's broader artistic scope and geographic range.
"Utrillo painted Montmartre extensively, and he's mainly known for that, but he also traveled around, and he painted a lot from postcards," Montleau noted. "This world-renowned painter is also the painter of the regions, of forgotten churches, and I remain convinced that thanks to him, we could showcase territories that are somewhat forgotten, unknown, or unusual." Her vision extends beyond just celebrating Utrillo's Corsican period to using his work as a means of bringing attention to overlooked and underappreciated places throughout France.
The exhibition organizers are particularly interested in gathering any information, documents, or stories that Corsican families might have preserved about Utrillo's 1913 stay on the island. Their research aims to provide a comprehensive look at this lesser-known period in the famous painter's life, when he ventured far from his usual Parisian haunts to capture the rugged beauty of Corsica's landscapes and architecture.
