Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli
1874
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Still Life with Fruit and Wine Jug is a 1874 oil by Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli, a Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
This painting shows a table with fruit, a wine jug, and a glass. The colors are bright oranges, reds, and yellows. The brushwork looks thick in places. It’s a still life, but the thick paint makes it feel alive. Monticelli used a technique called impasto. That means he piled paint thickly on the surface. It gives the painting texture and depth. This style influenced later artists like Van Gogh. His bold colors and brushwork remind me of Van Gogh’s work. Check out more of his still lifes at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Vincent van Gogh was a great admirer of Adolphe Monticelli’s richly impastoed paintings, and he saw in the older artist’s landscapes, flower arrangements, and portraits the sincere expression he was seeking for his own art. He also identified with the myth of the misunderstood artist from Provence that rapidly grew around Monticelli after his death in 1886. Indeed, the artist played a role in Van Gogh’s decision that same year to travel to the South of France, where he hoped to find the source of Monticelli’s light. In this still life, Monticelli’s brilliant yellow fruits anticipate Van…
Jacques Blot, Paris; sold to E. J. Van Wisselingh & Co, Amsterdam, 1952 [information provided in email from Marcia Zaaijer, based on Van Wisselingh photos in Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague; Wisselingh asigned the painting number S 7295]; sold to Paul Rosenberg and Co., New York, Jan. 23, 1953 [information from Marcia Zaaijer, as cited above]; sold to Mary and Leigh Block, Chicago, Mar. 26, 1953 [according to Rosenberg records provided by Elaine Rosenberg, May 2002; see also Marseille 1986-87]; given to the Art Institute, 1988.
New York, Paul Rosenberg and Co., Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886), November 15 - December 11, 1954, cat. 11. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 100 European Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, 1967, cat. 3 (ill.); traveled to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 21-November 2, 1967. Pittsburgh, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Monticelli, His Contemporaries, His Influence, 1978-79, p. 75, pl. 110, traveled to Toronto, Gallery of Ontario, Washington, D.C., Corcoran Art Gallery, and Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli (October 14, 1824 – June 29, 1886) was a French painter of the generation preceding the Impressionists.
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