Rue du Mont-Cenis

Late in 1914, a few months into the war, Utrillo painted this from the window of a room he rented, looking along rue du Mont-Cenis as it tips downhill and Paris opens out beyond. He set out the perspective with a ruler and built the walls up in thick paint. It is autumn here. The trees are bare under a cold grey light. The only warmth comes from the browns of the tall shuttered building and a small roof below the wall. That roof belongs to the house where the composer Hector Berlioz once lived, a building Utrillo also painted face on that same year.