After beginning his studies at an art school in Marseilles, in 1846 Monticelli went to Paris to study at the Louvre and in Paul Delaroche's studio. In 1849 he went back to Marseilles and from 1851 to 1862 lived alternately there and Paris. He was influenced at first by the painter Henri Baron and later by Diaz whom to know personally. He was much impressed too by the work of Delacroix and this had a great influence on his technique. From 1862 to 1870 he was working in Paris where a dealer undertook to buy any pictures he might produce, at a very low price, and then sold them again to English and American clients. He went back to live Marseilles in 1870, and eventually died in 1886 after a stroke. He was a real bohemian living from hand to mouth and selling paintings for very little; he was a very prolific painter whose only joy was in his work. His light effects are produced combination of pure unmixed colours, dotted on to the canvas with stiff brushes. His landscapes are painted with thick oily like strokes, like a kind of coloured mosaic done with heavy impasting. His favourite subjects were richy-coloured sunsets, autumn tints, with early morning scenes and the brilliant scarlet of down. His still-lifes are aglow with light and colour, with rich brocades, flowers in full bloom and vivid shades of porcelain. He also executed a number of genre paintings, flirtations encounters and fair-grounds, as well as several  portraits.

Based on Phaidon encyclopedia of Impressionism, Maurice Serullaz, Phaidon, 1978