I cannot find a renowned Danish artist born at the same time as the two great Danes, Niels Bohr and Karen Blixen (both 1885-1962). But a few countries south and a couple of years earlier, the great French artist Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) was born.

    Many artists worked in the Montmartre district of Paris during Utrillo's lifetime-- Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh among them--but Utrillo is one of the few great painters who was born among the scenes he painted there.

    His mother was something of an artist herself--a trapeze artist, to be exact--but after a fall she became an artists' model. She learned to paint by watching the greats who painted her (and sometimes slept with her).

    Maurice was born out of wedlock, the illegitimate son of an 18-year-old girl. His mother never revealed who the father was, though a Spanish artist named Miguel Utrillo y Molins agreed to take responsibility for him.

    The Mexican artist Diego Rivera (also a contemporary--he lived 1886-1957) used to tell this apocryphal story about Utrillo's paternity:

    "After Maurice was born to Suzanne Valadon, she went to [Pierre-Auguste] Renoir [1841-1919], for whom she had modeled nine months previously. Renoir looked at the baby and said, 'He can't be mine, the color is terrible!' Next she went to [Edgar] Degas [1834-1917], for whom she had also modeled. He said, 'He can't be mine, the form is terrible!' At a cafe, Valadon saw an artist she knew named Miguel Utrillo, to whom she spilled her woes. The man told her to call the baby Utrillo: 'I would be glad to put my name to the work of either Renoir or Degas!'"

    Utrillo grew up with his maternal grandmother, and unfortunately he became an alcoholic. Internationally known by his mid-20s, he struggled with mental problems, and was repeatedly hospitalized.

    Nevertheless, he lived into his seventies. He became deeply religious in his fifties, married, and moved outside of Paris. After his death (only a few years before Bohr and Blixen), he was buried in a cemetery in Montmartre, his birthplace.

    1. the condition of being married

    2. of the mother

    3. born when one's parents are not legally married

    4. probably not true, but still believed

    5. place where the dead are buried

    6. famous

    7. being a father, also, the question of who one's father is

    8. a kind of swing used high in the air by circus performers

    ANSWERS: 1. wedlock 2. maternal 3. illegitimate 4. apocryphal 5. cemetery 6. renowned 7. paternity 8. trapeze