Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli (October 14, 1824 – June 29, 1886) was a French painter of the generation preceding the Impressionists.

Biography

thumb|left|Still life with Sardines and Sea Urchins, 1880–1882, [[Dallas Museum of Art]]

Monticelli was born in Marseille in humble circumstances. He attended the École Municipale de Dessin in Marseille from 1842 to 1846 and continued his artistic training in Paris, where he studied under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts. In Paris he made copies after the Old Masters in the Louvre and admired the oil sketches of Eugène Delacroix. In 1855 he met Narcisse Diaz, a member of the Barbizon school, and the two often painted together in the Fontainebleau Forest. Monticelli frequently adopted Diaz's practice of introducing nudes or elegantly costumed figures into his landscapes. His work reached its greatest spontaneity in the decade before his death in 1886.

Legacy

thumb|upright|A Painter at Work on a House Wall, 1875, [[Städel]]

thumb|upright|Monument à Monticelli in the [[Palais Longchamp Marseille]]

More than a century after his death, Monticelli's art is still subject to controversy.

In its painterly freedom Monticelli's work prefigures that of Vincent van Gogh, who greatly admired his work after seeing it in Paris when he arrived there in 1886. Van Gogh immediately adopted a brighter palette and a bolder attack, and later remarked, "I sometimes think I am really continuing that man." In 1890, Van Gogh and his brother Theo were instrumental in publishing the first book about Monticelli.

A monument honoring Monticelli, designed in 1909 by the sculptor Auguste Carli, is installed in the Palais Longchamp Marseille.

Exhibitions

From September 2008 until January 2009, an exhibition entitled "Van Gogh and Monticelli" took place in Marseille's Centre de la Vieille Charité, highlighting Monticelli's influence on Van Gogh's work.

From April 25 until September 27, 2015, an exhibition entitled "Van Gogh and Co. Criss-crossing the collection" at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands, displayed paintings by Van Gogh and his predecessors, contemporaries and followers, among them François Bonvin, Charley Toorop, Henri Fantin-Latour, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Paul Cézanne, Bart van der Leck and Adolphe Monticelli.

<gallery widths="180" heights="180" perrow="4">

File:Monticelli - Portrait de Madame Pascal.jpg|Portrait de Madame Pascal, 1871

File:Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli - Ladies in a Garden - Google Art Project.jpg|Ladies in a Garden, 1870

File:Adolphe Monticelli - Bouquet - Google Art Project.jpg|Flowers in a Blue Vase, c. 1875. Clark Art Institute

File:Adolphe Monticelli - As You Like It - Google Art Project.jpg|As You Like It

File:Adolphe Monticelli - Fete Champetre - Google Art Project.jpg|Fete Champetre

File:Adolphe Monticelli - Flower still life - Google Art Project.jpg|Flower Still Life, 1875

File:Monticelli - Aldeia Fantástica.jpg|Seascape Near Marseille, 1880, São Paulo Museum of Art

File:Monticelli - Scène de parc, femmes, enfants et chiens.jpg|Scène de parc, femmes, enfants et chiens

</gallery>

Notes

References

  • Loan exhibition of paintings by Adolphe Monticelli. New York: Paul Rosenberg & Co. Catalogue no. 91, 1954. LC 73171702 Loan exhibition of paintings by Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886) November 15 to December 11, 1954 | Open Library
  • Monticelli Ausstellungskatalog, Hamburger Kunsthalle, April - Mai 1966. [Text in German] Monticelli | Open Library
  • Impressionism. (1973). New York, N.Y.: Chartwell Books Inc.
  • Sheon, Aaron. Monticelli, his contemporaries, his influence. Pittsburgh: Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, 1978. LC 78060375 Monticelli, his contemporaries, his influence | Open Library
  • Garibaldi, Charles, and Garibaldi, Mario. Monticelli. Geneva: Skira, 1991. [Text in French.]
  • Turner, J. (2000). From Monet to Cézanne: late 19th-century French artists. Grove Art. New York: St Martin's Press.
  • Stammegna, Nadine. Monticelli écrit par Van Gogh. Marseille: Transbordeurs, 2003. [Text in French]
  • Raillard, Joseph. Monticelli l'étrange. Marseille: A. Dimanche, 2008. [Text in French]
  • Catalogue of the Van Gogh - Monticelli exhibition. Paris, Editions RMN, 2008.

Bibliography

  • Arnaud d’Agnel, Gustave and Isnard, É. Monticelli, sa vie et son œuvre, Paris: Occitania, 1926.
  • Gouirand, André. Les Peintres provençaux: Monticelli, 1900.
  • Guidou, Paul. Adolphe Monticelli, étude biographique et critique, Paris: 1890.
  • Guinand, Louis. La Vie et les Oeuvres de Monticelli, 1891.
  • Maglione, André. Monticelli intime, 1903.
  • Martin, Étienne. "Impromptu sur Monticelli," a paper read at the Académie de Marseille in 1922.
  • Monge, Jules. Adolphe Monticelli, heures intimes, Revue Massilia, 1910.
  • de Montesquiou, Robert. "Monticelli," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 43° année, 3° période, vol. XXV.
  • Négis, André. Adolphe Monticelli: châtelain des nues (Collection: La Vie de bohème #7), Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1929.
  • Servian, Ferdinand. "Adolphe Monticelli" in Remarques sur la technique de quelques peintres provençaux, Marseille: de Barlatier, pp.&nbsp;79–89.
  • Fondation Monticelli
  • Monticelli's portrait
  • Artwork
  • Bloomberg Businessweek, The Smarter Way to Invest in Art