Adolphe Monticelli, pursuing his version of Romanticism…

Adolphe Monticelli, pursuing his version of Romanticism in isolation, paints Maldorme Cove (1874, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France).

Born in Marseille in humble circumstances, Monticelli had attended the École Municipale de Dessin in Marseille from 1842 to 1846, and had continued his artistic training in Paris, where he had studied under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts.

In Paris, he had made copies after the Old Masters in the Louvre, and had admired the oil sketches of Eugène Delacroix.

In 1855, he had met Narcisse Diaz, a member of the Barbizon school, and the two had often painted together in the Fontainebleau Forest.

Monticelli frequently adopts Diaz's practice of introducing nudes or elegantly costumed figures into his landscapes.

Monticelli has developed a highly individual Romantic style of painting, in which richly colored, dappled, textured and glazed surfaces produce a scintillating effect.

He paints courtly subjects inspired by Antoine Watteau; he also paints still lives, portraits, and Orientalist subjects that owe much to the example of Delacroix.

After 1870, Monticelli had returned to Marseille, where he will live in poverty despite a prolific output, selling his paintings for small sums.

An unworldly man, he dedicates himself single-mindedly to his art.