- Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli
Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli (
October 14 1824 –June 29 1886 ) was a French painter of the generation preceding the Impressionists.Biography
Monticelli was born in
Marseille in humble circumstances. He attended the École Municipale de Dessin in Marseille from 1842 to 1846, followed by study inParis underPaul Delaroche at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts . In Paris he made copies after the Old Masters in theLouvre , and admired the oil sketches ofEugène Delacroix .Turner 2000, p. 314.] In 1855 he metNarcisse Diaz , a member of theBarbizon 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.He developed a highly individual Romantic style of painting, in which richly colored, dappled, textured and glazed surfaces produce a scintillating effect. He painted courtly subjects inspired by
Antoine Watteau ; he also painted still lives, portraits, and Orientalist subjects that owe much to the example of Delacroix.After 1870, Monticelli returned to Marseille, where he would live in poverty despite a prolific output, selling his paintings for small sums. An unworldly man, he dedicated himself singlemindedly to his art.
The young
Paul Cézanne had befriended Monticelli in the 1860s, and the influence of the older painter's work can be seen in Cézanne's work of that decade. Between 1878 and 1884 the two artists often painted landscapes together, once spending a month roaming the Aix countryside. Although Monticelli experimented briefly around 1870 with a treatment of light reflecting the discoveries of the Impressionists, he found the objectivity of this approach uncongenial.Confronted with criticism of his style of painting Monticelli himself remarked, "I paint for thirty years from now". [in: "Monticelli" par Gustave Coquiot, 1925 Albin Michel ed Paris] The work of this instinctive painter reached its greatest spontaneity in the decade before his death in 1886.
Legacy
In its painterly freedom [http://www.ddart.co.jp/monticelli(p1).jpg] 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." ["Impressionism" 1973, p. 45.] In 1890, Van Gogh and his brother Theo were instrumental in publishing the first book about Monticelli.Monticelli's reputation grew after his death. Among his collectors was
Oscar Wilde who, after going to prison in 1895, wrote of his bankruptcy in a letter toLord Alfred Douglas , "De Profundis": "That all my charming things were to be sold: my Burne-Jones drawings: my Whistler drawings: my Monticelli: my Simeon Solomons: my china: my Library..."Today Monticelli is considered a minor figure in 19th century painting, a painter's painter. In 2005 in
The Guardian , Sir Timothy Clifford, director general of theNational Galleries of Scotland ,Edinburgh , chose Monticelli's "A Garden Fete" as the worst painting in Britain, and commented, "We have been bequested eight paintings by Monticelli, each one more hideous than the last. In my 21 years here, none has been hung because I think Monticelli produces screamingly awful art. I call this one a Fete Worse Than Death." [http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/0,8542,1552438,00.html]Notes
References
*"Impressionism". (1973). New York, N.Y.: Chartwell Books Inc.
*Turner, J. (2000). "From Monet to Cézanne: late 19th-century French artists". Grove Art. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-22971-2External links
* [http://www.associationmonticelli.com/ Association Monticelli]
* [http://autourduperetanguy.blogspirit.com/images/medium_monticelli_05_sepia.jpgMonticelli's portrait]
* [http://artistesprovencaux.free.fr/maitres/monticelli.htm Artwork]
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