Art: Within the Sacred Wood

Within the Sacred Wood Just who was the father of Maurice Utrillo? The list of possibilities suggested at one time or another as the sire of the late, famed, alcoholic painter of Montmartre scenes sounds like a roll call of 19th century greats. Renoir used to pose Utrillo's mother, cognac-haired Marie Clémentine Valadon, nude in the back of his garden. Toulouse-Lautrec was' her bosom companion and persuaded her to adopt the more stylish name of Suzanne. Degas took her under his wing, assured her, "You are one of us."

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