Nature morte aux oursins
Oil on panel, signed lower left.
69 x 83 cm
Bibliography:
RAILLARD Georges, Monticelli l'étrange, Marseille, André Dimanche éditeur, 2008, reproduced on page 219.
GARIBALDI Charles, GARIBALDI Mario, Monticelli, Geneva, Skira, 1991, reproduced on page 175.
Adolphe Monticelli, the baroque of Provence
If one immediately distinguishes his style from all others, Monticelli's painting is not necessarily obvious at first glance. It does not offer itself to us today as limpid and seductive as the productions of the artists of the following generation, that of Emile Loubon's pupils, who like Raphaël Ponson or Jean-Baptiste Olive, painted the shores of the Mediterranean in a luminous invoice whose grace carries away our instinctive adhesion.
To the visitor of the XXIst century, the paintings of Monticelli claim the favor of another glance, quite as sensitive but more introspective. They invite to a patient discovery, a slow immersion in an unusual universe.
Adolphe Monticelli was in fact astonishingly modern and if he was interested in the research of his predecessors, he also questioned that of his most daring contemporaries such as Eugène Delacroix or Narcisse Diaz de la Peña.
His research as a colorist, which in retrospect makes him appear as "the necessary link between Delacroix and Van Gogh", leads him to a new subjectivity. He juxtaposes the touches, multidirectional, in impasto and variable tints, abandoning the formal drawing in favor of a vibrant expression.
Unlike the impressionists, who chose to orchestrate the lighting from the light background of the canvas, Monticelli starts from the darkness. He uses the dark background of the panel, which he often leaves in reserve, to flood it with flashes of white that create an incomparable relief.
This is how Germain Bazin made him the leader of the "Provencal Baroque".
Vincent Van Gogh's fascination with Monticelli has been the subject of increasing interest as the artist's work has become more and more recognized and appreciated internationally. "Thinking of Monticelli, he wept"... Gauguin reports about Van Gogh's fascination with Monticelli.
This exalted and foundational relationship is notably revealed by an exhibition held at the Musée de la Vieille Charité in Marseille in 2010, which displayed paintings by both artists side by side.