Adolphe Monticelli, 'Fountain in a Park', about 1875-80

A number of costumed figures on horseback and on foot, distributed in different groups in the foreground, are seen beside a fountain near a forest. On the left, four women wearing long dresses seem to be busy chatting and observing the two horsemen next to them. On the right-hand side of the painting two women are walking toward a third female figure, clothed in a bright yellow dress, waiting for them at the opposite side of the fountain.

This painting is very likely a pendant to the artist’s Meeting Place of the Hunt, which is identical in size. Scientific investigation carried out by the National Gallery has demonstrated that the two works are painted on matching wooden panels, possibly from repurposed wooden drawers. Both paintings have been dated on the basis of style to about 1875–80, after the artist had returned to his native Marseille, where he spent his last years.

These imagined scenes in which elegant figures enjoy themselves in parks and gardens evoke the eighteenth-century tradition of fêtes galantes, a favourite subject for Monticelli throughout his career. In his late paintings subject matter became subordinated to his colourful, thickly painted style. Here, however, the brushwork seems to vary in the different parts of the painting. Relatively broad and directional strokes are used in the landscape and in the sky, especially in the area surrounding the fountain. Brushstrokes become more dynamic in the figures in the foreground, which are painted in a thick impasto applied with short strokes, which gives them a three-dimensional quality.