1985.R.39 Adolphe Monticelli, Still Life with Sardines and Sea-Urchins

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

No artist from the south of France had a more profound effect on the art of Vincent van Gogh than did Adolphe Monticelli. Van Gogh's correspondence is filled with admiring references to the great painter of Marseilles, whose wildly colorful and painterly works of art the young Dutchman used as an exemplar of "southern" painting. Van Gogh's admiration of Monticelli's work was shared by many late 19th- and early 20th-century collectors, and because the demand exceeded the supply, a good many works attributed to Monticelli in collections throughout the world are known forgeries. The Reves panel is one of only seventeen known still-life paintings by the prolific artist. It was among twenty-six major paintings by Monticelli from the famous collection of the Marseilles businessman François Honnorat. Honnorat loaned it to many early exhibitions, and it appeared in the most important Monticelli exhibition, which was held in 1908 at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.

Rather than choose polite or refined forms like those preferred by most still-life painters, Monticelli went to the Marseilles fish market and purchased fresh sardines and a basket of spiny sea urchins. Although Monticellis' aesthetic was rooted in the practice of mid-century painters, who saw color as emerging from a deep brown "ébauche" (under-painting), his sheer love of paint itself and his variable and expressionist brushstrokes had few proponents in his own generation. Indeed, it took an artist with van Gogh's artistic sensibilities to appreciate Monticelli.

Adapted from

Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 59.

NOTES

Created 1880-1882

Checked Piction

Catalogue essays

The Reves Gift to the DMA

At La Pausa with Wendy and Emery Reves

Emery Reves

The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection

Winston Churchill and Wendy and Emery Reves

The Renaissance of La Pausa

Wendy Reves

Artist/designers

Monticelli, Adolphe (French, 1824-1886)

Cultures

Geography

Place of origin: Marseilles (inhabited place/France): TGN: 7008781

Process/materials

Oil on panel

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

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IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York~View another work by Monticelli at the Met.
The National Gallery, London~Learn more about the life and work of Adolphe Monticelli.

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1985.R.39

General Description

No artist from the south of France had a more profound effect on the art of Vincent van Gogh than did Adolphe Monticelli. Van Gogh's correspondence is filled with admiring references to the great painter of Marseilles, whose wildly colorful and painterly works of art the young Dutchman used as an exemplar of "southern" painting. Van Gogh's admiration of Monticelli's work was shared by many late 19th- and early 20th-century collectors, and because the demand exceeded the supply, a good many works attributed to Monticelli in collections throughout the world are known forgeries. The Reves panel is one of only seventeen known still-life paintings by the prolific artist. It was among twenty-six major paintings by Monticelli from the famous collection of the Marseilles businessman François Honnorat. Honnorat loaned it to many early exhibitions, and it appeared in the most important Monticelli exhibition, which was held in 1908 at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.

Rather than choose polite or refined forms like those preferred by most still-life painters, Monticelli went to the Marseilles fish market and purchased fresh sardines and a basket of spiny sea urchins. Although Monticellis' aesthetic was rooted in the practice of mid-century painters, who saw color as emerging from a deep brown "ébauche" (under-painting), his sheer love of paint itself and his variable and expressionist brushstrokes had few proponents in his own generation. Indeed, it took an artist with van Gogh's artistic sensibilities to appreciate Monticelli.