The Painter's Children in the Japanese Room. Mariano Fortuny

This painting shows the children of the artist Mariano Fortuny in a room with a Japanese style.

He painted his kids while they were playing one summer near the city of Naples.

On the right, his daughter María Luisa fans herself lying on 2 large orange and green cushions.

On the left, his son Mariano sits with a blue cloth embroidered in gold on his lap.

Mariano is focused, looking down.

The siblings are on a long couch covered with golden fabric.

There is a doll on the floor.

The wall has drawings of golden butterflies and branches of a tree with pink flowers.

On the left side of the painting is a planter with plants and flowers that give an exotic touch to the room.

Exotic means something typical of distant places or continents.

The painting has a Japanese style because of the decoration of the room.

For example, the fabrics or the drawings on the wall are Asian.

But it also shows Japanese influence in other elements.

For example, the light or the elongated shape of the painting is also of Japanese influence.

Mariano Fortuny was a Catalan painter who was very successful internationally.

Fortuny died at a young age because of a health problem.

Fortuny left many of his works unfinished, including this painting.

The floor of the room in the painting still needs to be finished.

There are still lines of the drawing Fortuny made before painting it.

The lines mean he wanted to paint the floor with square tiles like a chessboard.

Fortuny painted this picture as a family gift, not for an exhibition.

For this reason, Fortuny shows an intimate scene of his family.

Fortuny married the daughter of the painter Federico de Madrazo, and this painting was a gift for his father-in-law.

Since it was a gift for another painter, Fortuny said he would only give the painting if it turned out well.