La Place du Tertre c. 1910

Curator: This is Utrillo’s “La Place du Tertre,” held here at the Tate. It really captures, for me, a kind of quiet stillness. Editor: Yes, there’s something muted about it, almost a monochrome. The heavily worked surface conveys such a powerful sense of place; I can almost feel the dampness of the stone. Curator: Utrillo's famous for these street scenes, and his materials were, shall we say, unconventional. He mixed plaster into his paint to achieve that unique texture. Editor: Which makes perfect sense! The plaster gives the buildings this almost crumbling, textured effect. It's like he’s not just painting the buildings, but also the history and labor embedded within them. Curator: Indeed. There's a melancholy here, a sense of faded grandeur, that speaks volumes. A real sense of authenticity. Editor: Absolutely, and seeing the painting this way really grounds it, doesn’t it? It gives us a new perspective on the materials and their significance.