Cousin of the painter M. Utrillo and brother-in-law of Josep Llimona, he was one of the founders of the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc (Artistic Circle of Saint Luke), where he held his first exhibitions and in whose magazine he published his first work, Álbum Navidad (Christmas Album). He studied at La Llotja, the Barcelona School of Fine Arts, as a pupil of Antoni Caba and then went to Paris on a grant. At the beginning of his career he did religious pictures and portraits (Retrat d'Amadeu Vives [Portrait of Amadeu Vives], 1890; Orfeó Català collection, Palau de la Música Catalana), but later distinguished himself as a poster designer due to his efforts to apply a modern outlook in his compositions and for his commercial sense.

He lived in Argentina for a number of years and travelled to Italy, Switzerland and Britain, but in 1916 he returned to Barcelona and was appointed bursar of the Provincial Council and later of the Mancomunitat, a body bringing together Catalonia's four provincial councils.

He founded an industrial graphics workshop with Claudi Rialp called Claudi Rialps A. Utrillo SC - later, Utrillo i Rialp - with which they took part in various exhibitions and where a large part of the posters for the shows held at Els Quatre Gats were printed.