Avanti Galleri
"Le Cavalier" Circa 1860
Reflecting on the life of French Artist Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli is thought provoking. One will discover a crucial pioneer in the evolution of painting in 19th century France.
Monticelli was born in Marseille France in 1824. He attended the École Municipale de Dessin and continued his artistic training in Paris where he studied under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts.
He began his career by painting in classical style. Later he developed a unique style related to upcoming impressionism, which can be described as a "Feast of Colors". He perfected a romantic style of painting in which richly colored, textured, glazed surfaces produced a scintillating effect.
The young Paul Cézanne had befriended Monticelli in the 1860's and the influence of the older painter's work can be seen in Cézanne's work of that decade. Between 1878-1884, the two artists often painted landscapes together, once spending a month roaming the Aix countryside.
Along with his close friend Paul Cézanne and future follower Vincent Van Gogh, Adolphe Monticelli was one of the founding fathers of Modern Art. He freed color from the representation, becoming one of the most imaginative prolific original colorists of the 19th Century. Above all he established the preeminence of artistic technique over subject matter.
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. In 1890 Van Gogh and his brother Theo were instrumental in publishing the first book about Monticelli.
For Monticelli, color and surface texture were paramount. His paintings with their luminous, thick, creamy color schemes and crust like enameled surfaces, were a kind of color symbolism suggestive of emotional moods or personal experiences.
Although his career spanned the periods of both Realism and Impressionism, Monticelli remained faithful to the credo of Romantics - to make art of fantasy and imagination and to infuse one's creations with personal feeling. Indeed, he believed that painting should be a personal expression before all else, and that the artist should strive for uniqueness rather than assimilation within a movement.
European and American art exhibitions gave Monticelli a great deal of attention in the years immediately after the turn of the century. His paintings were shown prominently at the Centennial Exhibition in Paris in 1901, in Venice in 1901, Glasgow International in 1901, at the Carnegie Institute in 1902, Cercle Artistique in Marseille in 1902, Foreign Art New York in 1904, Berlin's Paul Cassirer Gallery in 1907, Brussels Vie et Lumière show of 1909, and in 1910 at the Venice International.
Today his paintings hang in the world's greatest museums such as The Louvre and Orsay in Paris, The National Gallery in London, Metropolitan Museum in New York, Rijks and Van Gogh Museums in Amsterdam - which also houses the private collection of Monticelli paintings owned by Van Gogh.
Vincent Van Gogh was quoted as saying "I owe everything to Monticelli, who taught me the chromatics of color...For myself I am sure I am continuing his work here in Provence, as if I were his son or his brother."
The original signed artwork by Monticelli pictured above titled "Le Cavalier" is available by Avanti Galleri. Price On Request.