André Utter

André Utter (20 March 1886 – 7 February 1948) was a French painter best known as the second husband and manager of Suzanne Valadon and as the stepfather of Maurice Utrillo. The three of them became known as the trinité maudite, or cursed trinity, because of their quarrels, reconciliations and alcoholism.

Born in Paris to parents of Alsatian origin, Utter was introduced to Valadon in 1906 by Utrillo. He posed nude for her from 1909 to 1914 and appears as Adam in her 1909 painting Adam et Ève. The couple married shortly before Utter was drafted into the First World War in 1914. After returning to civilian life in 1918, he took over the management of both Valadon's and Utrillo's careers. From 1910 he painted many landscapes of the rue Cortot, where his studio was, at first influenced by cubism; after the war his tone softened, and after 1925 he worked mainly on portraits and still lifes. He also painted theatre sets and illustrated Oscar Wilde's Théâtre à lire in 1925. He showed in several group exhibitions in Paris and had a solo show in Geneva in 1932, though he had little success as a painter.

One of his best-known works is Suzanne Valadon se coiffant (1913), held in the Petit Palais in Geneva. His paintings are also in museums such as the Brou Museum in Bourg-en-Bresse, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, the modern art museum in Troyes and the MAMCS in Strasbourg. His legacy rests mostly on his role in Valadon's life and on the portraits they made together rather than on a large body of influential work. He was buried with Valadon in the Saint-Ouen cemetery near Paris.