Adolphe Monticelli was born in 1824 in Marseille. He received drawing instruction from 1839 to 1841. After attending the École Municipale de Dessin from 1842 to 1846, he moved to Paris, where he studied under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts. In the following years Monticelli moved back and forth between Paris and Marseille. He first showed his work in 1853, in the exhibition of the Société artistes des Bouches-du-Rhone in Marseille. He subsequently exhibited regularly in Marseille, Lyon and Nîmes, and also accepted a few interior design commissions. In 1870 he left Paris, and beginning in 1871 lived in Marseille. By 1878 he was a close friend of Paul Cézanne’s, whom he had presumably met before 1870. The two artists frequently worked together. Monticelli is considered a precursor of Impressionism. He is particularly known for the pastose painting style of his late work, which impressed Vincent van Gogh as well as Cézanne. Monticelli died in Marseille in 1886.
