Figure study

Figure Study in the Princeton University Art Museum represents Monticelli's practice of using single figures as autonomous compositional and chromatic exercises — the figure stripped of narrative context and presented as an arrangement of colour masses, gesture, and paint materiality. Princeton acquired this work as part of its European painting holdings, American university museum collecting having been particularly receptive to Monticelli in the twentieth century when French institutions had neglected him. The figure study as genre occupies an ambiguous position in his practice: nominally preparatory or academic in function, Monticelli's versions are independent objects governed entirely by the demands of paint and colour rather than by any pedagogical or narrative purpose.

Oil on canvas for this figure study accommodates a larger scale than Monticelli's panels. Without the specific subject constraints of a named scene, the figure study gives him maximum freedom in colour and handling. The costume — likely theatrical or fancy-dress — provides a pretext for saturated, arbitrary colour choices.