By Luciano Migliaccio
In 1949, Seascape Close to Marseilles was presented at the Christie’s with the title Fantasy Village, thus corroborating the hypothesis that Monticelli did not paint this landscape directly from nature, but from later reflection at his studio in the last few years of his life, when his “expressionist” style had become most radical and the painter, tired and aged, preferred to produce small-format paintings, often on lids of cigar boxes. For this reason, the supposition that this painting was produced between 1880 and 1884 is quite reasonable. The similar style observed in other works of Monticelli’s last period, as for example Port of Cassis (1884, Japan, Matsukata Collection) contribute to this dating.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

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